Starlight, Star Bright
by dontwaitupxx
Summary: Best friends since childhood, they made a promise to be friends forever. This is the story on how Clare Edwards and Eli Goldsworthy came to be: their ups and downs, their struggles through life, and the love which would inevitably come their way.
1. Age Six

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter One – Age Six

* * *

><p>-<em>Monday<em>-

* * *

><p>Six year old Clara Edwards trailed behind her mother through the grocery store, trying to keep up. It was one of those grocery runs where her mother didn't have enough room in the cart for her to sit in the seat; the seat holding the fruits and vegetables that they were to have that week. That week was considerably special because it was going to be Thanksgiving that Thursday – a holiday that had little Clara bouncing up and down through the store as her mother selected the turkey, the potatoes, the carrots, the green beans, and everything else that were on her mother's seemingly endless list. It was certainly a holiday to be thrilled about – because she would have her grandparents coming in, the ones she never saw because they lived down in the states.<p>

Earlier in the week, during her grade one class, her teacher asked for them to tell the class what they were most thankful for, in light of the holiday that was coming up. When it was Clara's turn to speak, she raced up to the front of the classroom, different from the other students, who had simply stood at their desks and mumbled what they were thankful for, and said in a happy, delighted tone, that she was thankful that her entire family – herself, her sister Darcy, her mother, her daddy, her grandpa and her grandma – were going to all be in the same house and spend time together. And, of course, she mentioned that her grandparents were from the states, and promptly afterwards her teacher asked if she knew which state. With a joyous grin on her face, Clara replied: "Co-nettie-quit!"

As Clara and her mother reached the front of the store, Clara turned her head towards another one of the lines and saw a boy from her class; Elijah was his name. She didn't really know him that well, but he seemed nice enough. Nonetheless, she hid behind her mother's legs and made sure that he would not see her. It felt weird to see someone from her classroom _outside_ of the classroom. It was like they belonged in the classroom and deserved to be locked in. It wasn't that she hated him, she was just afraid of the awkward confrontation that eye contact _or worse_– saying 'hi' – would bring. Overall, she was a generally shy girl, but she did have her outgoing moments.

This was not one of those "outgoing" moments.

As her mother moved the food items from the cart, Clara slowly inched out of Elijah's sight until she was behind the row of candy. She stared at the cart, completely bored and wanting to go home. She began to sway to a nonexistent tune until her mother had finished paying and all of the bags were stationed in the cart. The bagging of the groceries had maximized the space in the cart, so her mother lifted her up and let Clara sit in the cart. As her mother pushed the cart away from the lines, Clara's mind went to other lands – that is, until the cart stopped moving.

"Cece!"

"Oh my goodness! Helen! I didn't even recognize you! You look _fantastic!"_

Clara's mother pushed the cart over towards Cece, who was supporting her own cart with child in tow. As Clara looked over, her cheeks burned red. There, sitting in his own cart, was Elijah, the very boy from her class, and the _very_ boy that she was trying to make sure didn't see her there. She did the one thing that she could in a situation like this.

"Clara, you're probably too young to remember, but these are our old neighbors, Mrs. Goldsworthy and her son Elijah… you actually might remember Elijah." Her mother commented, "You two were three years old when we moved. Do you remember Elijah, Clara?"

Clara looked at her mother, then to Mrs. Goldsworthy, then at Elijah, who was staring back at her. His hair was spiked, as most of the boys her age had, and his green eyes were bright and innocent as he looked at her. He seemed nice enough, but the introduction was _outside _the classroom. Being caught in a situation that she didn't like, _at all, _her bottom lip began to tremble, and her face soon scrunched up into a wail that had the entire grocery store staring at the four of them. Her mother's smile soon turned into a scowl.

"Clara, what has gotten into you?" She lifted up Clara slightly from under the armpits so she could look into her eyes, but Clara's eyes were scrunched up with only the littlest portion of them open for her tears to flow through.

Clara's mother sighed and set her back down in the cart, which only made Clara cry and scream even harder. Her mother looked slightly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry Cece, but I've got to get Clara home. We'll catch up some other time. How does Saturday sound? Want to come over for lunch?"

"I can come over right after Elijah's soccer game. Sounds good!" Cece responded.

Thus, Clara's mother pushed the cart out of the grocery store and out into the parking lot with a frown on her face. It wasn't that she was mad at Clara, no. It was just… different. Her older daughter, Darcy, was so much more outgoing at Clara's age. Sure, the trick was to get her to _stop _talking, but nonetheless, there was scarcely a time where Darcy would cry; unless it were a situation where she scraped her knee or forgot her favorite stuffed pony at grandmas. Never was there a time that meeting someone new would bring her to tears. But then again, she had to remind herself: Darcy and Clara were two different children with two completely different personalities. And she remembered that instead of crying, Darcy had a way of stamping her feet across the house, simply fuming, if she didn't get her way. Sometimes she'd add a few high pitched screeches and perhaps a lone tear or two, but there were rarely any moments where Darcy would have an absolute crying fit.

When her mother had gotten to the car, Clara was still crying, only she had forgotten exactly _why _she was crying. Regardless, she still had the immense urge to cry, and did so, not even stopping when her mother pulled out the Scooby-Doo fruit snacks from one of the bags and handed it to her.

As her mother put her cart back, she picked Clara up and looked at her.

"Clara, this isn't a crying situation." She said, whipping at her tears, "Now I don't want to hear anymore of this, understand?" She said sternly. Clara could only pinch her eyes shut and nod. The wailing ceased, but the crying and hiccupping still continued.

Her mother then walked them over to the car and strapped Clara in her car seat. Since she was now a big girl, she had gotten a new car seat; one where she could use the big people seat belt instead of the baby seat belt. She still had her Scooby-Doo fruit snacks, so before her mother could close her door, she showed her the pouch and her mother took it from her and ripped it open.

As her mother started driving away, she said, "Now Clara, I picked up dinner for tonight, Tuesday, and Wednesday for this week. I got stuff to make spaghetti, tacos, and sloppy joe's. Which do you want to have tonight?"

"But Mommy, you forgot about the Thanksgiving turkey!" Clara pointed out.

"Sweetie, that's going to be for Thursday night, when we have your grandparents over."

"Ohhhhhhh… okay, I want tacos tonight!" Clara said, the excitement from the food making her smile and cease crying – but partially also because of the fruit snacks.

"Alright then! We'll just have to wait for daddy to come home and for your sister to come home from cheerleading practice."

"Okay. Mommy, can I watch a movie tonight?"

"Not tonight, Clara, it's a school night. Besides, it's bath night."

"Okay." Clara said, suddenly sad. Not because they couldn't have turkey that night, not because she couldn't watch a movie, and not because she had to take a bath.

Her last fruit snack was gone.

* * *

><p>-<em>Saturday<em>-

* * *

><p>"Mommy, I don't want to wear these pants today. I want to wear my dress!"<p>

"Honey, it isn't Sunday; there's no reason for you to wear your pink dress today."

"But Mommy, I want to wear it!"

"Honey, you're going to be playing outside today, and I don't want for you to get your clothes soiled."

"I don't care! I hate wearing these pants."

"Well I do care. You're not wearing your pink dress today, and that's final!"

Clara huffed and stuffed her legs into the purple, cotton pants that her mother was making her wear. She then turned around and ran out of the room.

"Clara…" her mother beckoned her back.

Clara huffed back into the room, held her arms up stubbornly, and her mother put her purple shirt with the pink heart on. She then ran out of the room and down the stairs. Her mother laughed to herself. It seemed like most girls Clara's age would not even dream about wanting to wear pink dress. However, it was the complete opposite with her. Clara never liked to wear just pants and a shirt. She wanted to always parade around in her dresses, and her mother was usually perfectly find with it, but there was a point where she had to draw the line. Clara had specific "play clothes" and "church clothes" and she seemed to always want to wear her "church clothes" whenever possible. But with Clara's dresses being more expensive than her play clothes, her mother could not afford for her dresses to become ruined with dirt.

Clara's mother heard the doorbell ring, and her spirits instantly perked up. She put away Clara's pink dress in her closet and headed downstairs. She saw Clara dancing around her father's feet as he sat on the couch, obviously amused. Of course he would never go to answer the door himself. Clara's mother slapped a smile on her face and opened the front door. There stood Cece, in her hands a plate of cookies, and Elijah standing next to her, wearing his heavy fall jacket with his soccer uniform still visible underneath. Her mother beckoned them in, and from the couch, Clara spotted Elijah, and remembered last Monday at the grocery store. However, the awkwardness was gone, because this situation was different. His mother had brought cookies.

"Hi Clare!" Cece said when she saw Clara.

Clara made a face and stuck her face in her father's knee. Her mother whispered to Cece, "Clara doesn't like to be called that. She's very picky when it comes to variations of her name."

Cece immediately understood and walked over to Clara with the cookies and bent down to her level, "Clara, would you like a cookie?"

Clara turned towards Cece, and with a smile and a short little head bob, she grabbed a cookie from the plate.

"Clara, what do you say to Mrs. Goldsworthy?" Her mother asked, manners being an all-time importance.

"Thank you, Mrs. Goldsworthy!" Clara chimed, the happiness on her face evident as she took a bite out of the giant cookie.

"Mom," Elijah tugged on his mother's pant leg, "Now that we're here, can I have a cookie?"

"Of course, Elijah," his mother said, handing him one.

Clara jumped towards Elijah, "Do you want to go play outside? We have a trampoline!"

"Are you serious?" Elijah screeched, "That's so cool!" The two of them ran towards the back door.

"Clara, put your jacket on! It's windy outside! I don't want you catching a cold!" Her mother called out, "Oh, and put on your boots, too!"

Her mother heard an "Okay mommy!" from the back door, and then a shuffling of two pairs of feet towards the laundry room, then back towards the back door. She heard the back door slide open, and then shut.

Outside, the sun was out, but the fall air was chilly. Instantly, both of the children's cheeks turned red as the air contrasted with their body temperatures. Since it was after Thanksgiving, the air had a wintery vibe to it, and both children were looking forward to the first snow fall. Clara led Elijah out to the trampoline and let him climb in first. He immediately started jumping, which made it more difficult for Clara to climb on.

"Elijah!" Clara said, a trill of laughter in her voice, "Stop jumping! I can't climb on!"

Elijah jumped towards her and then bent down and offered his cold hand for hers. She accepted it and climbed on. She didn't let go of it, though; it kept her hand warm. So instead, she grabbed his other hand and started jumping. He began jumping with her, and they soon found themselves on their backs from a lack of balance, laughing, and rolling around. They played games like tag, flips, and 'who can jump the highest?'. It was the most fun that she had ever had, even more fun than when her best friend Allison came over for sleepovers, where they played house, cops and robbers, and Legos. It wasn't necessarily the games that were so much fun; it was who she was _with _that made them so much fun.

She had made a new friend. Just like that.

A child's life is so simple. There's not a complexity to things. Things just are, or are not. The friends a child makes can turn out to be some of the best friends that child would ever had. And that's just what Elijah turned out to be: her best friend. And as they were jumping up and down together, their small breaths making the air turn white, they saw something else white come their way; on top of Clara's nose to be precise. Together, they witnessed the first snowfall of the year. Sure, it melted once it hit the ground, but it marked the beginning of winter for the two. It would be the one thing that the two remembered as the beginning of their friendship.

That night, after Clara and her mother, father, and her sister Darcy prayed together, and after Clara was "put to bed", Clara knelt beside her bedroom window and looked up at the sky. Although she couldn't see any stars that night, she knew that they were there in spirit. She folded her hands under her chin and prayed:

"Starlight, Star Bright,  
><em>...If<em> I saw a star tonight:  
>I wish I may, I wish I might,<br>Have the wish I wish tonight."

She silently prayed that Elijah would be her friend forever, and that nothing would ever come between them. Because at that age, forever is a bound agreement that _truly _means forever.

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter One-<p> 


	2. Age Seven

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Two- Age Seven

* * *

><p><em>-Friday-<em>

* * *

><p>"Betcha can't catch me!"<p>

"You wanna bet?"

"Your girly legs can't keep up with me; I'm a natural at running!"

"Oh, we'll see about that!"

Clara Edwards took off running after Elijah Goldsworthy. It was 11:30, meaning that the grade two classes got their half an hour recess. It also meant that Clara and Elijah could actually see each other during the school day, since the school decided to move them into separate classrooms after grade one. Couldn't the school realize that Clara and Elijah were best friends? They were literally joined at the hip. Ever since Clara and Elijah had become best friends, they had been doing _everything _together. Their moms would always be at one house or the other, and the two were left alone, free to do whatever they wanted, whether it be playing on Clara's trampoline or playing in Elijah's sandbox. Their moms also made it an excuse to take them places with them. They went to Chuckie Cheese's together, they went to the park together, they even made their first Build-A-Bear's together! It would be the start of many things that they would do together.

As Clara was running after Elijah, she did come to the realization that he was running just a tad faster than she. It was probably the soccer games that he had every fall and spring that had made him faster than she. But that didn't stop her little legs from running as quickly as she could behind him.

As he ran across the blacktop, he swerved in and out around other children who were playing; the girls playing jump rope, the boys playing four square, and the weird kids who were rolling around on the cement. Clara had a little trouble moving around the kids, but managed to make her way around the children rolling on the hot cement, getting their faces all black and dirty.

As he ran over to the playground, he practically flew up the ladder and faced her from the top, "You can't touch me here; I'm in the safety zone!"

"No fair!" Clara pouted, "I'll never be able to catch you then if you don't move!"

"That's the whole idea!" Eli smirked, resting his arms against the playground walls.

"Hey Clara," a voice from behind her squealed, "Do you want to play jump rope with us?"

Clara turned around and saw her friend Allison skipping up to her in her pink boots and long denim skirt (despite the seventy degree spring time weather).

"Sorry, Allison, but I'm playing a game with Elijah."

"What are you playing? Maybe I can play?" Allison inquired, a small smile on her face.

"Sorry, Allison, but I think it's only supposed to be a two person game." Clara said, truly wanting to play with Elijah and _only_ Elijah. She liked Allison a lot, but there was a time and place for playing games with her, and when she can't see Elijah all day except for during recess, then that time isn't then.

Allison pouted and skipped off, though her skipping seemed forced and tiresome. Clara turned back towards the playground and the smile on her face instantly vanished. The place where Elijah had been standing now stood empty, and he was nowhere to be seen. She quickly inspected the playground, looking around on each side to see if he was there. After being satisfied that she couldn't find him, she started to walk over to where Allison was playing, when all of a sudden, she heard a "Boo!" from behind her and she felt two hands push her over onto the blacktop. Looking up, she saw Elijah standing over her, looking quite pleased with himself, but Clara wasn't going to have any of that.

"Oh, I'll get you for that, Elijah Goldsworthy!" Clara said, getting up on her feet and chasing after him, though he had already gotten a decently significant head start. Again, he dodged through all of the children playing on the blacktop, but this time, she was ready for it, and managed to save a few seconds running through them. She was a lot closer to Elijah than she was before, and now he was only about four feet in front of her. She willed her legs to go as fast as they would let her go, and when he was almost in her grasp:

He veered a sharp left.

At first, she was left clueless as to where he had gone. But then she felt two all familiar hands push her from behind and yell, "Boo!" in her ear. Again, she fell down on the blacktop, but this time, scraping the tops of her hands. But the adrenaline pumping through her veins allowed her to forget about the pain on her hands and chase after him again. He ran back to the playground and started to run around it. However, everyone knows that, especially at this age, girls are generally far smarter than boys are. So simply knowing that Elijah would run around the playground, Clara headed in the opposite direction, chasing around the other side of the playground. Looking behind her to make sure that he hadn't gone back towards the blacktop, Clara didn't see the figure running her way that _also _wasn't looking her way. She collided with Elijah and they both went sprawling to the ground, the wind knocked out of both of their lungs. They both sat up on the woodchips surrounding the playground, gasping for breath and looking at each other, both of their cheeks red from running and sweat dribbling down the sides of their faces from the heat outside.

Clara was about to put her arm out to grab him and officially catch him, when she started to feel the pain erupting from her hands. She looked down and saw her scratched up hands, now with woodchips sticking to them. She looked at them and then to Elijah, trying to keep in the tears but failing to do so. She tried to stand up, wobbling as she did so and started walking away over to the teachers standing by the door. In half a heartbeat, Elijah was by her side, with one of her palms in his hands. While he was looking at her hand, she was half expecting him to say something along the lines of, "oh did I do this?", or "Oh, this looks painful" or even in the least, "I'm sorry, Clara."

What came out of his mouth was nothing that she would have ever expected.

"Wow! This looks so cool!"

Surprised, she yanked her hand out of his hands, one of his fingers catching on of the woodchips. Pain instantly erupted from her hand and she held her palm in her other fingers, trying to keep from both her hands throbbing in pain. She began walking over to the teachers and one of them perked up when she saw her and bent down to her level.

"Clara, what's wrong? Did you hurt your hands?" One of the lady teachers asked.

Clara nodded and showed the teacher her hands, both a pale pink and having woodchips stuck to them. The teacher sympathetically 'tsk'ed and said, "Clara, how did this happen?"

Elijah, standing a few feet away from the teachers and Clara, overhearing the conversation, half expected for her to say, "Elijah did it!" or "Elijah pushed me down onto the concrete" or even in the least, "We ran into each other and I scrapped my hands."

What came out of her mouth was nothing that he would have ever expected.

"I… I tripped over a rock… and I… I fell." Clara said, sobbing as she did so.

The teacher, wanting to be comforting but not wanting to touch her hands, put her hand on young Clara's back and led her into the school to the school nurse.

Overall, it wasn't necessarily the pain of the scratches that hurt Clara the most. And no, Clara wasn't mad at Elijah at all. It was only an accident and they were only playing. No, the one thing that hurt the most was that in the one time of the day that she was able to see Elijah, she was only able to see him for about half of the recess break.

And that, besides the monster in the closet, is a child's worst nightmare.

* * *

><p>"Alright, Clara, your mother is going to be here in about fifteen minutes, so you can just sit in here and wait until she arrives, okay sweetie?"<p>

Clara nodded, hugging her knees to her chest. She was sitting in the nurses office after the incident at recess, and after being put through the tortures of having to get the woodchips taken out of her hand, having to go through the burning sensation of hydrogen peroxide, and having to endure having the nurse bandage her hands for her, the nurse decided that she had had a long enough day and that it was time for her to go home.

As Clara sat there, the nurse went into the school office, which was connected to the nurse's office. Clara was all alone in the nurse's office, sniffling, lonely, and just wanting her mother. As Clara sat there, she saw the hallway door begin to jiggle, and for half a second, Clara thought that it was her mother. The door then opened, and she saw two green eyes staring back and her. Immediately, she didn't know what to make of the situation. He was being extremely out of context.

"Elijah!" Clara whispered, "You're supposed to be in class! How did you get your teacher to let you down here?"

Elijah stepped in all the way and smirked, flashing the bathroom pass in front of her face. Clara immediately gasped and said, "Elijah, you lied to a teacher?"

"I didn't lie to him about anything, Clara! I will go to the bathroom. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay." Elijah said.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clara said, rolling onto her side and then with her face towards the wall, away from him. She huffed and thought that she heard him step out of the room. Truth is, he had actually stepped farther into the room.

"Clara… I had also… you know… I just wanted… well…" he turned a flushed red, and this time it wasn't from running or from the weather, "I just wanted to say… that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kept pushing you down, and I shouldn't have run into you at the playground."

"That is not what I'm mad about, Elijah," Clara said, still facing the wall, "Why did you say that the scrapes on my hands looked cool?"

"What? …I dunno. I just did. Though there wasn't a lot of blood, I thought that the blood looked cool." Elijah confessed.

"Yeah, well, it didn't feel too cool."

"Yeah… well I'm sorry…" Elijah said, then he looked up when he saw that Clara had turned around to face him. She had a small smile on her face.

"Elijah? Do you wanna have a sleepover at my house tonight?" Clara asked, not just because she accepted his apology, but because she only saw him for fifteen minutes during recess.

Elijah's face instantly perked up at this and said, "That'd be awesome! I'd just have to ask my mom to make sure that it's alright."

"Yeah, it would probably be a good idea if I asked my mom about it too…"

"So, a truce?" Elijah asked, holding out his hand.

Clara stared at it, "What's a truce?"

Elijah stared, wide eyed, "You don't know what a truce is? God, you are such a dork!"

"Hey!" Clara pouted.

"What, I'm friends with you, right? You're a cool dork!" Elijah grinned, and Clara did also. He sat down next to her, "A truce is where we agree to stop our fighting and stay friends no matter what… It also means that I get to chase you every single day during recess."

"No way!" Clara looked away from him, a small grin on her face.

"But Clara, isn't it worth it if we stop fighting and stay friends forever as long as I get to chase you at recess?" Elijah asked, smirking.

"I… I guess so…" Clara said, giving him her pinky finger since she had her bandage on her hand. He gave his pinky finger in return and they shook on it.

"It's a truce then!" Elijah said, grinning. They then heard the nurse's voice from behind the office door and Elijah sprinted out of the room, into the hallway, forgetting to close the door behind him. The nurse failed to notice however, as she was talking with another older adult.

"Mommy!" Clara squealed and jumped into her mother's arms, hugging her and kissing her cheek. She was just tall enough to the point where if she stood on her tippy toes (and if her mother bent down a little – but Clara didn't have to know that!), she could reach her mother's cheek and kiss her.

"Hi there sweetie!" her mother said, kissing her daughter's cheek, "Are your hands feeling better?" Clara nodded yes in return, "Alright well, let's get you home so that way you can take a nap and forget this ever happened.

"Mommy, can Elijah sleep over?"

* * *

><p>That night, Clara and Elijah sat on the couch in Clara's living room, watching <em>Harry Potter <em>and eating from a large bowl of popcorn in between them. The movie was almost over, and both of them were getting sleepy. Clara's mother could sense this and had already set out two sleeping bags with pillows on the ground in front of the TV. Both of the children were in their pajamas, so all they had to do once the movie was over was brush their teeth and go to bed.

"Elijah?" Clara said, yawning, "I don't want to go to sleep yet… do you want to watch another movie?"

Elijah yawned too, yawns being contagious, but before he could answer, Clara's mother perked up from the kitchen, "No more movies tonight! You two are going to bed soon, you've both got things going on in the morning."

"Like what?" Clara asked her mother from the couch, yawning again.

"Elijah's got a soccer game in the morning at ten, and he needs to be home at nine." Clara's mother explained.

"Oh okay." Clara said, but then remembered something, "Mommy, where's daddy?"

"Oh…" her mother was quiet for a moment, "Your father's out for the night. He'll be back by tomorrow morning sweetie, don't worry."

"Oh, okay… mommy, what do I have going on tomorrow morning?"

"You… ah… well, you're going to _see_ Elijah's soccer game tomorrow!"

"I am?" Clara said, instantly excited, "Elijah, did you hear that?"

But Elijah didn't say anything. Clara looked over and saw that Elijah was fast asleep on the couch, his head resting on the arm rest.

A child is as innocent as they sleep. Any misdemeanors are stripped away as they sleep and all you see is the angelic face. As they sleep, there isn't any sin in their lives. So what you see is something as pure as an angel themselves. The movie credits were showing then, and nobody ever watched those unless they had clips of the movie in them, so Clara took the opportunity to go over to the window and pray. That night, the stars were out, and she picked out her favorite star of them all, which was shining the brightest amongst them all.

"Starlight, Star Bright,  
>The shiniest star I see tonight:<br>I wish I may, I wish I might,  
>Have the wish I wish tonight."<p>

She prayed that Elijah would do well in his soccer game tomorrow and that they would win. She also prayed that their truce would stay true for the rest of their lives, and that she wouldn't grow tired of him chasing her around the playground. She also wondered what these new feelings she had for him were. She still saw him as her best friend, but she was starting to see him the way that Hermione was looking at Ron in the movie. She knew that was an awful comparison, but she knew that those feelings weren't going to go away any time soon.

-End of Chapter Two-


	3. Age Eight

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Three – Age Eight

* * *

><p>-<em>Wednesday-<em>

* * *

><p>Clara lied in bed, staring at the ceiling. It was nine thirty, a half an hour past her bed time, and her father still wasn't home. She was beginning to worry – what if he never came home? Earlier that evening while her mother was making dinner, Clara was watching the news in the living room (her mother had left it on, and Clara couldn't find the remote). There was one story on the news that caught Clara's attention. It was about a man who had just gotten into a car crash on a nearby high way and didn't survive. The police department had concluded that he had crashed due to reckless driving; the man's cell phone showed a phone call that was traced back to his cell phone. Replaying the call, they were able to conclude an argument before the crash. After contacting the person on the other line, they confirmed that person to be his wife, and she confirmed that they were having an argument before the crash. Upon hearing of his death, his spouse was absolutely devastated.<p>

Clara's parents had been fighting recently. Well… perhaps not fighting. To Clara, fighting was more physical. Her parents had been arguing recently. Over silly things, Clara noted, but arguing, nonetheless. They would be yelling at one another if one of them forgot to take out the trash when they said that they would. They would argue over which show to watch. And most recently, Clara's mother would throw a fit if her father was not home in time for dinner. However, this particular night was different, and it wasn't like her father had told them where he was going to be. He simply left for work in the morning, and by nine thirty at night, he still wasn't home. There wasn't a phone call given. There wasn't a note left behind. It was like he just left, and Clara felt like he wasn't going to be coming back.

Her mother had tucked her in at nine o'clock as par usual, but Clara could not sleep. She wouldn't sleep. She knew not to ask her mother about it, because her mother would more than likely either ignore her or make up some story as to why he wasn't home. Clara was smarter than to believe her.

She slowly got up out of bed, knowing someone who might be able to give her a straight answer… _maybe._ It would depend on her mood, and if she knew anything. Clara walked across the hallway, and as she did so, the sound of blaring music became louder and louder, until she reached a light purple door with light blue bubble letters saying "Darcy!" in a diagonal line. She gulped, knowing that the door closed and the music blaring were two signs that meant that she _did not_ want to be disturbed, but nonetheless, Clara found herself knocking on her sister's door.

"Hold on!" She heard her sister yell out. That was good; her tone wasn't nearly as annoyed as she thought that she would be.

Darcy opened the door, with her eyes about a foot above where the top of Clara's head was at; Darcy was expecting her mother. She looked down, and once she was Clara, her expression went from one of nonchalant to being annoyed.

"What do you want, Clare?" Darcy said, exasperated.

"Don't call me that!" Clara whined, and stamped her foot. Darcy huffed, "I was wondering if you knew where daddy is."

"No; why do you think that I would know?" Darcy asked, annoyed.

"I was just asking…" Clara mumbled under her breath. She was ready to turn around, when Darcy stopped her.

"Maybe I should fill you in on something," Darcy said, leaning against the door frame, "Do you know _where _Daddy is when he's not here?"

"I thought… I thought maybe he was at work?" Clara said, switching the weight from one leg to the other.

"Well, he might be at work, you know, until five, but after that, no." Darcy said, her gaze becoming darker, "No; after that, _daddy-dearest_ is out at some bar, getting drunk off his ass so that way whenever he comes back home, he doesn't have to deal with us."

"You're… you're lying! Daddy would never do that!" Clara whispered, attempting to convince herself that it wasn't true.

"Suit yourself," Darcy said, smirking, "But make sure to ask yourself too: where _else _would dad be at nine forty-five at night? Did he _tell _you where he'd be? No; he hasn't told any of us. Will he offer an explanation when he comes home? No, but you'd be able to tell. A person who is drunk can be very easily distinguished between someone who isn't. And who knows? I wouldn't be surprised if he's doing worse things out there right now."

"Like that?" Clara said, terrified for it, but not having a clue as to what it could be.

"Oh, you'll find out when you're older," Darcy said, a look of disgust trailing her face, but not a Clara. She stepped back, and Clara almost thought she was inviting her in, but Darcy just smirked and said, "Night," And slammed the door right in her face.

The hallway was pitch black, and the music in Darcy's room blasted even louder than before. Clara walked slowly back to her own room. What could her sister mean by, "doing worse things" than he could be doing right now. What was worse than not seeing your two daughters and wife, of whom you're supposed to love endlessly until death do they part? Things weren't adding up for Clara, and she didn't like it. Usually things made sense for her, and if they didn't, then they made sense to someone else, and she could simply just ask for them to explain it to them. But no; her mother and sister _did _know what was going on, but neither would elaborate enough to her to where she could understand it completely.

Clara climbed into bed and whipped her tear stained cheeks with her hand. She didn't bother praying that night; she was too upset to do so, and praying would only make her feel worse about the situation. All she wanted was her father back in her life, and was that too much for a little girl to ask for? Sometimes, yes.

* * *

><p>Clara woke with a start. At first, she didn't know what it was that woke her, but then she heard it again. There were heavy footsteps downstairs, and then she heard the front door close shut. They walked for a bit, but then stopped abruptly. She heard murmuring coming from downstairs. She looked towards her clock; it was one in the morning. Could her father just have gotten home? She slipped out of bed, and quickly walked towards the door; she went to the staircase and listened. She could hear her mother and father talking; her mother's voice drenched with exhaustion, and her father's voice drenched with something that she didn't recognize. She went down the first two steps and was able to make out the words that they were saying.<p>

"…it's one in the morning; where have you been?"

"I told you… I've been… I've been - out."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"If this is the treatment I'm going to get when I get home, then I'll… I'll just leave."

Her father's words were slurred together in a way that made Clara uneasy. Was this what her sister meant when she said that a drunken person could be distinguished from someone who was not drunk? She truly hoped it wasn't.

"Oh, so what? You'll just go back to whatever whore you were screwing before you came here?" Clara had never heard her mother use that language before; it made her cringe on the inside.

"…I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play stupid with me; you know, someone in this house does actually clean your filthy laundry. I've seen the notes from girls; I've seen the receipts from trashy motels; I know what you've been doing behind my back, so don't try to deny it!"

"…I don't need this."

"Where do you think that you're going?"

"Out."

By this time, Clara had inched her way down the staircase, and was now looking over the railing. She heard her father's footsteps coming her way, but she didn't have enough time to duck out of the way before he saw her. Instantly, she regretted ever going downstairs; the look on her father's face made it so.

"What the hell are you doing out of bed, child?" Her father yelled, making Clara freeze on the spot. By this time, her mother had come around the corner, and saw Clara, terrified, standing there, with her father moving around the staircase to get to her.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on her!" Clara's mother yelled out, but it was already too late.

A slap resounded through the house, and for a moment, time completely stopped. Clara was on the ground, holding her cheek and looking up at her father, who was towering over her, absolutely fuming. In a second's time, she was scrambling up the stairs, completely terrified and completely hysterical. She didn't know where to go; all she knew was that she had to keep running. As she ran towards the top of the stairs, she ran towards her room, someone grabbed her and pulled her towards the other end of the hallway. She soon found herself in front of Darcy's door, completely open. She was pushed in and the person behind her locked the two of them in. She looked towards the door, and saw that Darcy was up, and she was the one who had collected her and pulled her safely into her room. Her sister had tears flowing down her cheeks too.

Clara cried at this, and ran the few steps towards her sister, who hugged her in return. Darcy held her close and led her towards her bed, where they sat down and cried into each other shoulders after what had just happened. They listened to the commotion downstairs die down, and then heard the front door slam shut. All was quiet for a few moments until they heard a pair of light, delicate feet move up the stairs. Darcy instantly ran towards her door, knowing it was their mother, and opened it for her. Their mother didn't say anything; only brought them both over to the bed again and held them there for a while, rubbing Clara's cheek as she did.

Finally, their mother sighed and said, "Clara, grab your sleeping bag from your room; Darce, can I borrow your sleeping bag for tonight? We're all sleeping in here."

Without a question, Darcy and Clara both went to fetch their sleeping bags. Their mother went down stairs and made sure that every door and window was locked from the inside. As Clara went to go get her sleeping bag, she made sure to turn on every light bulb from Darcy's room to her own; making sure that her father wasn't hiding in any of the shadows…

Her father; her dearest father had actually slapped her. She couldn't believe it. The only thing that she couldn't believe more than that was that she actually didn't want for her father to come back. She had a new emotion boil in her stomach that she had never felt before: hatred. It was against everything that she had ever been taught at school and at church, but regardless, the emotion sprang up and stood true as anything else. He wasn't the father that she loved; he was someone else entirely. She loved what her father used to be; simply hated what he had become.

Clara grabbed her sleeping bag and her pillow and her stuffed animal. She walked back to her sister's room, making sure to turn off every light as she walked back. As she walked back, she saw her sister and her mother sitting on the bed, whispering to each other, but the moment that they acknowledged her presence, they immediately stopped, sending her little half smiles as if to say that everything was going to be okay. But things weren't going to be okay; Clara just knew it.

* * *

><p><em>-Thursday-<em>

* * *

><p>Clara sat at the breakfast table the next morning eating her bowl of Captain Crunch. The bus would be arriving in about twenty minutes, which gave Clara just enough time to finish her breakfast, get on her shoes, and head out to the bus stop. Her mother was busy talking on the phone, speaking in a hushed tone, with her back towards Clara, but she didn't make anything of it. Darcy had caught an earlier bus to school, since Degrassi High started earlier than Degrassi Elementary, so her sister was already long gone.<p>

As Clara was slipping on her purple flats, Clara's mother got off the phone and started walking towards her. She knelt down and helped Clara get on her other flat, before placing her hands on her knees and looking at Clara.

"Sweetie, I'm going to have you take the bus home to Elijah's house today, alright?" Her mother asked, a small smile on her face.

"Why?" Clara asked with a look of confusion on her face.

"Clara, how would you like to spend the next week over at Elijah's house?" Her mother asked.

"Why?" Clara asked, still confused.

Her mother sighed, "Because, sweetie, things around here might get a little hectic, and it would be good if you weren't around to see it."

Clara looked at her mother, trying to put the pieces together, "Mommy… will you and daddy be alright?" She hadn't forgotten the slap from last night, but Clara had forgotten the supposed hatred that had boiled up for her father.

Clara's mother looked like she was about to cry, "I hope so." It almost sounded like a question. Without looking at the clock, her mother then said, "The bus will be here soon, sweetie… you should grab your stuff and go."

"I love you, mommy."

"I love you too, sweetie. Now go."

* * *

><p>"Wow, Clara! Isn't this exciting? You get to be over here for an entire week! How cool is that?" Elijah's mom, Cece, was saying, as she was setting up the second bed that had been pulled out from under Elijah's bed for Clara. Elijah and Clara stood awkwardly at the side, standing next to each other, Clara outranking him by about one inch.<p>

"Pretty cool." Clara said, unenthusiastically, as she played with one of her light curls on the side of her face.

"Oh, don't say it like that, Clara! Things around here are going to be _so _much fun!" Cece said, looking at the two of them.

"Sure, Mrs. Goldsworthy," Clara said, forcing a grin.

"Oh don't call me that," Cece said, grinning, "It makes me sound old. Call me Cece! No wait, call me mom… oh, but your mother might get mad if you start calling me mom… call me Cece!"

"Yes, Cece," Clara said quietly, rubbing her eyes.

"Now," Cece said, standing up, "Your mother dropped off a bag of clothes for you earlier this evening. How about I go get them, and then the two of you go and get ready for bed."

They both nodded and Cece left for the hallway. Elijah turned towards Clara, "What's up with you today? You've been awfully quiet. Are you okay?"

Clara contemplated for a second, but seeing as he was her best friend, said, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course I -"

"Here we are, Clara! Wow, your mother sure knows how to fit a lot into one bag." Cece dropped the bag next to Clara's bed, "You two will tell me if you need anything, right?"

The two nodded, and Cece left and closed the door. Being completely comfortable with each other, and being only eight, the two began changing into their night attire – Clara into her Disney Princess nightgown and Elijah into his Power Rangers pajamas. Once they had gotten changed, Clara climbed into her bed and Elijah went to turn off the light. The air was dark and silent for about ten seconds before Elijah climbed into his own bed and sparked up the conversation again:

"What were you going to tell me?" Elijah asked, leaning over his bed so that way his now-adjusted eyes could look at Clara. She looked right back at him.

"I… ah, Elijah, do your parents ever… fight?" She chose the word "fight" over "argue" because their form of arguing was verbal fighting.

"Not that I know of; why?" Elijah asked.

"Well… my mom and dad got into a huge fight last night. My dad didn't come home until late last night, and I woke up to their arguing. I went downstairs and heard them yelling such mean things to each other; things that I know shouldn't be said because God will hear them. My dad saw that I was listening and he… he slapped me on the face… hard. I don't know what to do." Clara confessed, tears stinging her eyes.

"Well… if you want my honest opinion…" Elijah said, searching for the right words, "It sounds to me like your parents don't love each other anymore."

"Oh no; they love each other: they took their vows to love each other when they got married."

"Clara… that's not something that's set in stone, as much as it should be… haven't you seen those shows where the couple breaks up? Just because people said that once upon a time ago that they were in love, doesn't mean that it stays that way."

Clara started to sniffle and Elijah knew immediately that she was crying. In this situation, he did the only thing that he could do. He crawled down to her bed and hugged her; she was sitting up by this point, whipping her eyes and such. He held her there until her sniffling died down, and she hugged him back.

"Will you pray with me?"

Elijah held her arm's length from himself and gave her a quizzical look, "What's praying?"

"Surely you know what praying is," Clara said, dumbfounded.

"Well, I shall know it when we do it." Elijah said, looking down.

"Elijah, praying is asking God for help when we don't know what to do; my family does it every night – or at least, we used to…" Clara trailed off.

"I'll pray with you," Elijah said, still sounded confused.

"Thank you, Elijah – you don't have to say anything. Just hold your hands together and close your eyes, and use your entire heart to ask for God's help." Elijah nodded, and Clara led him over to his window, which showed a clear autumn night sky. At the window, she placed her hands under her chin, and Elijah followed suit:

"Starlight, Star Bright  
>First star we see tonight:<br>I wish we may, I wish we might  
>Have the wish we wish tonight."<p>

She prayed that her father and her mother would end their fighting and come to the conclusion that they will forever love each other. She also prayed that things would go back to a state of normalcy in their family. She then thanked God that she had such a good friend, Elijah, who was always there for her, and always willing to listen whenever she needed someone to do so. Elijah smirked and playfully pushed her.

A broken family breaks the child that is growing up. It forces them to grow up earlier than they are supposed to. It destroys the innocence of the child, and changes the values that they are brought up on. Not to suggest that child might become rebellious, but when parents go back on their promises that they made to each other at the altar, it makes the child wonder exactly what other things they could go against too. Or what other promises could be broken. A child is a delicate thing, and when forced to grow up prematurely, it changes that child for good.

_-End of Chapter Three-_


	4. Age Nine

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Four – Age Nine

* * *

><p>-<em>Tuesday<em>-

* * *

><p>Ten months. It had been exactly ten months and seven days since her parents had gotten their divorce. But really, who was counting? After all, who <em>would <em>count after coming back from their best friend's house to find that their mother had already filed for a divorce, their sister had kept herself hidden in her room, and her father was absolutely nowhere to be found? Clara had her reasoning.

After the divorce had been officially dealt with and done with, Clara's mother had made it her priority to do fun things with her two daughters: she would take them out roller blading, ice skating, sledding, picnics in the spring time, up to Quebec for a mini-vacation, anything really to get her mind and the two girl's minds off of the divorce and of their father. Darcy would, for the first few times, simply play along and try to enjoy the quality time with her mother and sister, but soon found herself making up excuses as to why she couldn't go – but then those evolved into reasons why she _didn't _want to go; and those excuses weren't made up. Darcy found that she had better things to do while her mother and sister were out on the town making snow angels.

So along with the separation of their father from the family, it felt like Darcy was making her own separation from the family. She became more distant, and became more involved with her friends from high school. Being a freshman in high school and being outstandingly pretty for her age, she had made quite a few upperclassmen friends, including one boy of whom made her cheeks flush red every time that she thought of him: Peter Stone. At this point, they were only flirting, but any person with two eyes could see that they both liked each other – _a lot _– and if Peter didn't end up asking her out within the next week or so, Darcy was going to end up asking him out herself – with her mouth.

Darcy went out nearly every night whether it be with Peter or some of her other high school friends. Clara and her mother never saw them; they were never invited over. Because of that, they never saw Darcy anymore; she might be home for an hour after school, maybe at home for dinner every once in a while, but for the most part, she was out partying with her friends and wouldn't be back on school nights by ten at the earliest. If her mother knew even half of the things that Darcy was doing out with her grade eleven, grade twelve friends, then Darcy would be placed practically under house arrest. It being the summer before her sophomore year, ten months after the divorce, she was out till late, getting drunk with her friends and laughing and partying, not getting home ever until after her mother was already dead asleep.

Along with the changes with the divorce, Clara decided that she needed to undergo some changes too. Clara ended up chopping her hair off, demanding for contacts instead of her glasses, and the most contradictory change of all: whenever someone would call her Clara, she would throw a temper tantrum, and insist that she be called _Clare. _One can imagine how difficult it was to stop calling her Clara, after it had been carved into their brains that they should _never _under _any _circumstances, call her Clare. However, it was a time for change, and over the course of the ten month period, nearly everyone was calling her Clare.

So for Clara… _Clare… _that day ten months and seven days later did have some other significance to it other than a measure of counting the days after the divorce. It was a day of celebration; it was a day of turning:

It was Clare's ninth birthday.

And it was also a day of which she would be able to see Elijah again!

Clare's mother had to remind Darcy to actually be there on her birthday and get her a present.

Clare had woken up that morning to find that her door was decorated. In a fashion just like Darcy's door, but instead with a sparkly background and pink lettering, in big bubble letters was the name "Clarebear!" written in a diagonal manner, mirroring Darcy's door across the hallway. It was Darcy's present to her, and she was spending her sister's birthday locked in her room since she wasn't allowed to leave the house that day.

The birthday party was starting at one o'clock in the afternoon; it was a small get together – Clare had only invited her two closet friends to come: Elijah and Allison. Both of their parents were also coming over, so while the kids had their own little birthday party, the adults got to have their own little get together as well.

The preparations for the party started at nine o'clock in the morning, and being as Clare's favorite color was pink, _everything _was covered in pink: pink streamers, pink balloons, pink confetti, and even a pink birthday cake. As Clare's mother worked to get the streamers hanging from the ceiling, Clare grabbed handfuls of confetti like it was pixie dust and threw it around the room, covering the floors, furniture, and poor mother in confetti. It was her birthday; her mother couldn't just say that she wasn't allowed to do so.

So as it was 12:30, and the party was about to start, Clare ran upstairs to her bedroom and put on her favorite pink dress; obviously not the same one that she had when she was six years old, but nonetheless, her favorite dress that actually still _fit _her. Her mother couldn't say no either; it _was _her birthday after all.

When she came downstairs dressed in her pink party dress, her mother gushed at how gorgeous she looked. She then ran to her bathroom and grabbed a pink clip and clipped it into her short, curly hair, "There you go, sweetie! You – look – so – cute!" she squealed, tapping her finger on Clare's itty bitty nose.

Then, the doorbell rang. Clare squealed with delight; it was the first party guest! She opened the door, and when she saw Allison, wearing a long skirt with a t-shirt – her parent's choices - she squealed even more and gave her friend a huge hug. When they separated, Clare saw that she had a pink package left in her hands. It had bows and sparkles all over it. She screamed with delight and both of the girls ran inside. Clare's mother had appeared behind them during that time, and invited both of Allison's parents in. On the way in, Allison's mother looked at Clare's mother, shrugged, and with a smile, said, "Girls."

In the family room, Allison looked at Clare, a look of seriousness in her eyes, and said, "It is boiling hot outside; _please _tell me that you have something I can wear besides this," she motioned towards her floor-length skirt and Clare laughed, "Yeah, I've got a pair of shorts you can wear. Come on!"

The two girls ran upstairs to Clare's bedroom, and Allison nodded in approval towards Clare's newly decorated door. Clare opened her closet, and Allison's mouth dropped at all of the _pink _that was in there.

Allison shook her head and said, "Yup, my birthday present will _definitely _be put to good use."

Clare grabbed a pair of shorts hanging from one of the hangers and threw them towards Allison. They were a pair of mid-length shorts, so Allison's parents would approve, and, to Allison's delight, they weren't pink. She quickly put them on and exaggerated, "Oh, it feels _so _good to be out of that Catholic school girl skirt."

Clare giggled, "Allison, _I'm _Catholic."

Allison brushed it off with a grin, "Yeah, I know."

Both of the girls heard the doorbell ring again, and both of the girls squealed. Before Clare could go downstairs, though, Allison grabbed her arm, "Clare," she said, a mischievous grin on her face, "If that's Elijah downstairs, when we open the door, we should both say, 'hi, Elijah!'"

"Oh my gosh, that would be _so _funny!"

"Then come on, let's go!"

They both ran down the staircase, and, to their delight, Clare's mother hadn't opened the door yet. Clare grabbed the handle and said, "On the count of three." Allison nodded, "One… two… _three!"_

Clare opened the door, and both girls stuck their heads forward and screamed with girlish grins on their faces, "Hi, Elijah!"

Elijah stood there, a small, silver package resting in his hands, with either parent standing on each side of him. He had let his hair grow out, and it was now cascading freely down his head, stopping at about an inch above his ears. His face was nothing short of priceless: absolute shock, with a small blush forming on both cheeks. Both girls instantly began laughing, and as his parents began walking towards the back of the house to where all the parents were at, his father bent down next to his ear and said, "Get some, Elijah!"

His mother, Cece, then slapped his father on the back, and whispered, a small smile on her lips, "Don't say that, Bullfrog; he doesn't even know what that means yet!"

Once they were gone, Elijah held out his hands and said, "I got this for you, Clare… I hope you like it."

Clare then took a step towards him and gave him the biggest hug that he had ever thought imaginable. From behind her, Allison stood there, a wicked smile forming on her face as a plan began to formulate inside her head. Clare then took Elijah by the hand – something that they had done since they were six years old while jumping on Clare's trampoline in her backyard, and led the two of them over to where Allison's present was. She immediately sat down, and the look in her eyes said everything: 'I want to open presents now.'

Elijah and Allison sat across from her, and Allison immediately shoved her present into Clare's hands, "Mine first," she said, then turned to Elijah, "We've been best friends since preschool – I hope you understand."

Elijah simply nodded and Clare took that as the cue to start opening up her present from Allison. She saved the purple bow that was on top of it – she actually then stuck it on top of Elijah's head; both girls laughed at the ridiculousness of it. When she opened up the pink box, she found that there was a lot of tissue paper in there… no, that wasn't tissue paper, it was the present. She took it out, and found that it was a sparkly, _purple _boa and underneath of it all, she found sparkly _purple_ plastic heels, and a small sparkly _purple_ purse. She looked to Allison for an explanation.

"After seeing your wardrobe upstairs, I _knew _that I made the right decision with this." Allison smiled and patted Clare's knee, "You can thank me later."

Clare _did _like the present – it was definitely something that Allison would get for her – she just didn't know exactly how she would incorporate it into an outfit… maybe she would wear it for Halloween…

"Oh my gosh, Allison, I love it!" Clare squealed, hugging her friend, "Thank you!"

"Aww, you're welcome!" Allison giggled, "See, I just knew you'd like it!"

Clare then put all of the contents back into the box and shifted it aside. Elijah then handed her his present, a small blush forming again on his cheeks. Clare wondered what was up with that, but then threw that idea away. She took the small silver package and took off the black bow. She stuck the black bow next to the purple bow and found that the two bows went very nicely together on Elijah. She opened the little box and found a little note resting on top.

_To: My Best Friend.  
>Your Best Friend, Elijah.<em>

The note was short and sweet and to the point, and he was certainly her best friend… she made sure to keep the note out of Allison's eyesight. She took the small amount of tissue paper off of the present and gasped when she saw it. Inside, there was a small little silver chain, big enough to go around her wrist, and there was a small band attached to the chain. On the band, there was a note engraved:

_Clare & Eli~Best Friends 4ever_

She looked up to him, "Elijah… I love this! Thank you!"

Elijah blushed even further and mumbled, "It was my mom's idea…"

Clare giggled, "Elijah, I absolutely love this. Thank you so much!" She then leaned over and gave him a hug. That wicked smile began to form on Allison's face again as her plan came into action:

"Elijah…" Clare giggled, as she looked down at the engraving again, "Why does it say 'Eli' instead of 'Elijah' on here?"

Elijah looked down and mumbled something under his breath, "What was that?" Clare asked, giggling again.

"…We could only have up to twenty-five letters engraved…" Elijah mumbled, looking up at her and giving her a small smile.

Allison clapped her hands together, "You know what this means, right Clare?" Clare was confused, she nodded 'no'. Allison signed, "It _means _that you need to _thank _Elijah for getting you such a _wonderful _present!"

"Allison, I thought I already said 'thank you' to him…"

"Not like _that_, Clarebear! You have to actually _show_ your thankfulness to him! I think a _kiss _should work out fine."

At this, both Elijah's and Clare's cheeks turned a dark red, and they couldn't exactly look at each other. However, Clare was blushing for a different reason, because Clare _did _want to kiss him. She reasoned that after being friends since they were six years old, he at least deserved _one _kiss, right?

Allison was still talking, "…and besides, _Clare_, we're going into the _fourth grade! _You need _experience! _You can't _go _into the fourth grade without _at least_ kissing a guy on the cheek. So go on now. Kiss him!"

Clare was beyond embarrassed, but she had already made up her mind. She looked up at Elijah, who was still staring at the ground, and very quickly, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. She then looked at him, and whispered, "So… yeah… thanks again for the bracelet… I really like it."

"No problem…" Elijah said, his cheeks becoming redder and redder by the second. Very swiftly, he stood up and said, "I, uh, I gotta use the bathroom," and he ran out of the room.

Once he had exited the room, Allison shoved Clare's shoulder playfully, "Oh my gosh, Clare, he totally likes you! Did you see how much he was blushing? I thought that only happened in movies. But oh my goodness, my little Clarebear," she faked the sniffles and pretended to wipe a tear from her eyes; "she's all grown up now, isn't she?"

Clare looked at Allison, a look of curiosity in her eyes, "Who did you kiss, Allison?"

"What?" Allison said, caught off guard.

"You had said that I can't go into the fourth grade without kissing a guy. Well neither can you. Who did you kiss?"

"Well… ah…" Allison went into full gossip mode, "you can't tell a soul, you got that?" She held out her pinky. Clare immediately shook it.

"So… we were out on the playground, right…? This was back in March. Well, we were sitting on the slide, the one that holds two people, you know? Well, we had Mark Fitzgerald standing at the top, you know who he is, right? Anyways, we had him guarding the slide to make sure that there weren't any dumb grade one's didn't go down the slide while we were sitting on it. Well, the guy I was sitting next to had told me that I looked really pretty today, and as a way of _thanking _him, I gave him a kiss on the cheek."

"Who?" Clare almost screeched.

"Well... ah... Do you know… who Dave Turner is?" Allison said, twirling her hair.

"Oh… my… gosh… _you two would be so cute together!"_

"So would you and Elijah! Or _Eli_, as I guess he's now called."

Clare paused for a moment, "Do you really think so?"

"Clarebear, _darling, _I know so. Who do you think you're talking to?"

"Allison Bhandari." Clare replied, simple as that.

Allison smiled and wrapped her arm around Clare's shoulders, "There's a reason I've kept you around this long," she teased.

At that moment, Clare's mother came into the living room, and she looked the happiest that she had ever looked in _years_. She looked to Clare and smiled, "Hey Clare, what'd you get for your birthday?"

Clare held out her wrist, and her mother inspected it, "Wow, Clare, this is just as beautiful as Elijah's parents said it was!" She gushed. "This is such a wonderful present! Did you make sure to thank Elijah for it?"

"Oh yes, Mrs. Edwards," Allison piped in, grinning, "She most certainly did."

* * *

><p>Later that night, after Allison and Elijah had gone home - Allison hugging her goodbye, and Elijah, much to her delight, kissing her on the cheek as he left – the Edward's family had their own special dinner for Clare before the night was over. Her mother had made Spaghetti, Clare's favorite. Darcy was forced from her bedroom, but upon finding out that there was Spaghetti, she sucked it up and forced a smile on her face. Since Clare had already gotten her present from Darcy, being the decorated door, Clare had one more box to open: a present from her mother.<p>

It was a short, rectangular box, with pink wrapping paper and a silver bow. She carefully opened it, savoring each moment of anticipation as she did so, and when she opened it up, she found that her mother had bought her very own cell phone for her. It was a flip-phone, nothing too elaborate, but it was pink, so Clare loved it all the same. Darcy couldn't complain either, since it was like the same phone that she herself had gotten when she turned nine.

Upon inspecting the box, however, Clare found that the box sealing had been opened. She looked towards her mother, questioning.

"Oh yes, one more surprise…" Clare's mother said, a grin forming, "You see, when Elijah's parents were here, I told them I had gotten you a phone for your birthday, and _they _decided that they wanted to put _Elijah's _cell phone number into your contacts!"

"Oh my gosh! That's so cool!" Clare said, grinning.

"And… oh yes, there was one more thing too." Clare's mother got up from the table and walked over to the counter, which had a letter on it. She brought the letter back to Clare and. On the front, it said 'Clara Edwards'. There wasn't a return address, or any sort of hint as to who it was from. Her mother's grim look, however, seemed to hint that she had an idea.

Clare just stared at it, before Darcy said, "Well? Aren't you going to open it?"

Clare took the hint, and opened the letter, before finding a very juvenile card on the inside; it had Elmo on it, to say the least. Inside the card, there was a twenty dollar bill, and it had its usual card store pun, but underneath of it, there was a handwritten response, in sloppy handwriting:

_Clara,_

_I hope you have a wonderful ninth birthday.  
>I'm so sorry about what happened last year. I never meant any of it.<br>I love you, and I hope that you never forget that.  
>Give me a call sometime; I'd like to talk to you.<em>

_Love, Daddy_  
><em>14-684-5849-51207<em>

Clare felt the tears come to her eyes and felt her mother's presence over her shoulder as she was reading it. She retired back to her seat, saying, "It's so like him not to get you a real present." Clare simply stared at her card, and then asked to be excused. Her mother granted it, and Clare left the card on the table. She ran upstairs, feeling so distraught; so lost. She needed God's help; despite how far away he seemed ten months and seven days ago, she had grown their relationship since then and looked towards him for guidance on everything. She leaned in front of the window, and saw, to her delight, that there was one star visible in the partly cloudy summer night. She closed her eyes, and held her hands under her chin:

"_Starlight, Star Bright,  
>The only star I see tonight:<br>I wish I may, I wish I might,  
>Have the wish I wish tonight."<em>

She started off by thanking God for such a wonderful birthday. But then she asked God to help her make the right decision in whether or not she should call her father or not. After ten months and seven days of no contact, she had learned to live without him in her life. She still missed him, dearly, but she wondered when it came right down to it, if it was worth it or not.

She then thanked God for giving her the courage to kiss Elijah. She even admitted that she had a small crush on him. She prayed that he would be in her grade four class with her, so that way they would be able to see each other every day, and she also thanked the Lord that her mother had gotten her a cell phone, so that way she could talk to Elijah every day. She knew the importance of talking to someone everyday, and that keeping in touch with them was the only way to keep the relationship going. That, in itself, was a gift to be cherished.

Unfortunetely, however, she didn't exactly apply that rule to her father.

-End of Chapter Four-


	5. Age Ten

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Five- Age Ten

* * *

><p><em>-Saturday-<em>

* * *

><p>Clare was bundled up in red and green blankets by the fire. It had been a cold winter that year. It was the ending of January, and, if they were lucky, they would be out of the cold wintery effects by late February. Nonetheless, it didn't excuse a certain Clare to not be bundled up, shivering, and wondering when it was going to end.<p>

Earlier, before the end of the year, Clare had spent her Christmas with her mother and Darcy, which was becoming a new norm for them. Things were becoming so normal, that the Edwards' were all in talk of adopting a local puppy from the animal shelter. They hadn't heard from their father in a year and a half, since Clare's ninth birthday, and no one had bothered to call him. In turn, he hadn't bothered to call either, for they were sure that he wouldn't have forgotten the home number of the house that they had lived in ever since Darcy was a baby.

Clare's mother walked into the living room, a cup of steaming hot chocolate in her hands, and she handed it to Clare, who gratefully accepted it. She sat down next to her daughter, and put her arm around her, snuggling her close.

Sighing, her mother said, "It's times like these that I wish we had moved down to the states with grandma and grandpa. Though, we probably wouldn't have moved to Connecticut; they get just as much snow here as we do. I probably would have wanted to move more down south… but of course, your father would have been against it… he always loved the snow."

Clare leaned closer to her mother and sighed, smelling the subtle scent of her perfume. She had always worn that perfume ever since Clare was a baby. She knew her mother by that scent. It was _her _scent. It was one of those things that differentiated her mother from any other mother. It made her not just a mother… but _mom._

Her mother stayed silent, obviously wondering why she had ever brought up Clare's father in the first place. The mentioning of him in that household only made things sad, cold, and simply just plain awkward. And they had gotten along perfectly fine without him for the past two years. However, being without a father figure in their Christian family, or rather now "Christian" family, it was like having two pieces of fabric and trying to make them become fused together without a needle and thread or glue or tape or anything. There wasn't a way to keep it together. Clare now recognized Darcy's habitual routine as something that her father would have done. She came back late on school nights from partying and drinking with her friends (she had the same scent that Clare recognized from her father), and she knew that Darcy and her boyfriend, Peter, had gotten _very _close to each other over the last year. Clare didn't know how close they were, but she knew that she liked him far more than she liked herself or her mother; she was at his house more than her own.

Her mother, in turn, had stopped taking them to church. They still considered themselves to be a Christian family, but no longer were they all praying together at night. Clare was all alone when it came down to it. Every now and then, Elijah would offer to pray with her, but she knew that he only offered because it would make her happy. She knew that he didn't believe. But he was still her best friend.

Clare's mother sat up and looked at Clare's everlasting shivering. Finally, she came up with a solution, "Clare, how about you have a sleepover tonight. It would get your mind off of the ungodly temperatures outside, and you do look bored."

Clare laughed, "Really, mom?"

"Why are you questioning me when I tell you that you can have a sleepover?" Her mother joked, "Now go on, and invite someone over." She lifted herself off of the ground, and disappeared into the kitchen.

Clare knew exactly who she was going to call: Allison. It had been _forever_ since they had hung out; they didn't have the same teacher, nor did they have lunch together, _nor _did they have recess together. It was nightmarish.

Clare pulled out her bedazzled pink flip-phone; Darcy had gotten her a case for it that Christmas prior. She started typing in Allison's phone number, and waited as it rang. The phone picked up on the fourth ring, and a quiet voice answered, "…hello?"

"Hi, Allison, it's me! Clare! Do you want to sleepover?" Clare said, smiling, even though Allison couldn't see it.

"Ugh, Clare, _what _did I _tell you? _It's _Alli_ now, not _Allison. Allison _makes me sound like a _boy, _because it's like Alli _son._" Clare suppressed a laugh at her over-dramatic friend, "But I can't go. The parent's grounded me because they thought that one of the skirts a friend gave me was too _short_ and too _hot pink. _They wouldn't know fashion if it bit them in the butt." Clare laughed again, "Sorry, Clarebear."

"It's fine, don't worry about it. I've got other friends I could invite over."

"Clare, let's face it: you don't. Besides Elijah and me, you don't really have that many friends… _not that you're unlikeable or anything!" _Alli quickly covered up, "You've just always been… shy. _But, _with me as a friend, I can change that," Clare could just _see _Alli's mischievous smile on the other line.

"Oh shoot," Alli whispered, "My parents are coming. Gotta go. _Bye_!" And with that, she hung up.

Clare heard the line go dead and for a few moments, she simply just held the phone there, giggling to herself. Alli was one friend that would be hard to replace. Clare then hung up her side of the phone, and going straight into her contacts, fished out Elijah's number from it. She pressed the send button and listened for him to pick up. She almost thought that he wouldn't pick up, until she heard a sleepy voice come from the other end.

"…Hullo?" the voice in the other line practically slurred. Clare giggled… _again._

"Hi, Elijah. It's Clare. Were you sleeping?" Clare asked.

"…no."

"Elijah, it's four in the afternoon, why are you sleeping?"

"…concert last night… was _rocking!" _

"_You _went to a concert last night?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, okay. Well, wake up, because you're sleeping over tonight!" Clare said happily. She found it interesting how she was able to talk to Elijah in a completely different manner than herself to Alli. It was a best friend thing, she supposed.

"Ugh," Elijah said over the other line, sighing, "Can't. I'm going to another concert tonight with Bullfrog."

"Oh…" Clare tried to mask her disappointment, which would obviously not go unnoticed by Elijah, who knew her better than he even knew himself, "Well… what concert are you seeing?"

"Rise Against. My dad got tickets because he's interviewing them tonight, and he's really good friends with them… speaking of Bullfrog, hold that thought." Elijah said, and Clare could hear the rustling of steps as Elijah ran into the next room. She could make out the two's voices, but not specified words.

Within thirty seconds, Elijah was back on the phone, "Hey Clare, how would you like to see Rise Against tonight?"

"Huh?" Well, Clare certainly didn't see _this _coming, "Oh, well, I, uh, don't know any of their music."

"Well, neither do I!" Elijah said, "It's all about the head banging. No one really knows what the singer is singing."

"Oh well, okay; let me go ask my mom." Clare said, her eyes sparkling. She had never actually been to a real concert before. She ran into the kitchen, where her mom was busy preparing cookies. Her mother immediately turned towards her with an unbaked cookie in her hand, "Here, Clare, try this."

Clare opened her mouth and her mom fed her the cookie. It was everything that winter stood for. She nearly forgot about the pink phone in her hand by her ear with the boy waiting patiently for an answer. Clare quickly swallowed and then said, "Hey mom, is it okay if I go with Elijah to a concert?"

Her mother looked uneasy, "Well… I don't know… what kind of concert is it?"

"_Tell her it's a Hannah Montana concert."_ Elijah whispered on the other end of the phone.

Before Clare could think about the possible sin, she heard the words, "It's a Hannah Montana concert," escape her mouth.

"Oh, you mean that show that you're always watching about that one pop star school girl?" Clare's mother asked. Clare heard sniggering on the other end of the phone.

"Uh, yeah, that one." Clare said, completely embarrassed.

"Well, I didn't know that Elijah was one who would be watching that show, let alone actually be interested in going to see a concert by her." Clare's mother said, "But as long as either his mother or father are there with you at _all times_, then I don't see why not. Does he have an extra ticket?"

That didn't cross Clare's mind. How in the world would Elijah be able to get an extra ticket the _night of _that specified concert? Clare stammered, "Uh, hold on, let me ask." Clare then drew her attention back to the phone in her hand, "Do you have an extra ticket for me?"

"Oh yeah, don't even worry about it; my dad has already got that covered."

"How in the world was he able to get one?" Clare asked.

"I told you: my dad is really good friends with them; he has his ways."

"Alright…" Clare said, then turned her attention back to her mother, "Yup, they got a ticket for me and everything."

"Oh good, then I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time!" Her mother turned her attention back to the cookies, "I'm a little busy right now; is there any way that they can come to pick you up?"

"Let me ask," Clare said, attention back to the phone, "Can you come pick me up?"

Just then, Clare heard a honking outside of her house, and as she opened the curtains, she saw that Elijah's parent's black car was sitting in the drive way, and Elijah was already hopping out of the car and towards the front door. She could see his mouth move as she heard the words through her phone:

"I'm already ahead of that."

* * *

><p>When Elijah had seen Clare at the door, he had sent her back inside, and he forced her to change into something less, as he put it, "Catholic school girl", and more "edgy." Upon the second time she came down, he shook his head, and dragged her upstairs himself, and tried to find something that wasn't so <em>pink<em> and _girly. _In the back of her closet, she had a little black Christmas dress, with mid-length sleeves and a higher neck line: perfectly suitable for a ten year old little girl. He had her put it on, and gave her his nod of approval. Giggling, Clare ran down the stairs with Elijah and out into Bullfrog's black van.

Once seated there, they headed out, towards downtown Toronto. Elijah was fully awake by this point and was practically wiggling in his seat. Clare was excited too, but unlike Elijah, she had no idea what to expect from the concert. Eventually, they stopped in a McDonald's drive through, and while they were sitting there in the car, Bullfrog turned to the passenger seat and gave the two of them two tickets each: one was for admissions and one was in order to get backstage.

Clare's mouth dropped at this, "We're going to be going backstage?"

Elijah and Bullfrog laughed, "Yup, after the concert is over, you'll be able to go backstage and meet the band members; but just make sure that you _do not _lose that ticket! If you do, you can't go in." Elijah explained.

"Clarebear," Bullfrog said, "Have you _never _been to a concert before?"

"… I saw "Wicked" last year in New York when it was introduced on Broadway…"

Both Goldsworthy's laughed at this, and Bullfrog said, "Well, this is going to be a_ lot_ different than watching a musical about two witches with their unadulterated loathing. For one, there isn't a sitting area. Everyone at the concert is going to be standing up and dancing. And it is going to be _loud." _He then turned to Elijah, "Don't let Clare go into the mosh pit, especially for her first time. I know that you usually do, but then again, I still don't know how you're able to."

"Aww, but Dad, she'd do great in the mosh pit. She's not the little innocent Clare that she's always been; now, she's _feisty."_

"Feisty? Did my son just say feisty?" Bullfrog laughed to himself, and then muttered, "He is _definitely_ my son…"

* * *

><p>When they arrived at the concert, Clare's mouth opened at the long line that was outside the venue. Elijah took her hand and led her behind his dad, who was walking towards the line. But he didn't get into the line, rather, he cut right behind it, and they started walking in an alley right beside the venue. Elijah kept her close; not just for her sake, but for his own too, but it seemed as if Bullfrog knew what he was doing.<p>

He definitely did. They arrived at a back door, which stood open a little bit, enough to keep the door from locking. They went inside, and immediately, Clare was warmed with the hot air that came from inside the venue. Clare soon understood that they were already backstage. They showed their tickets to the nearby stage manager, and he nodded to them.

Bullfrog turned back to the kids, "You two can stay back here until the concert starts. After that, you two need to go out into the audience. I'm gonna go say hi to the band real quick."

As Bullfrog left them, Elijah turned towards Clare, "Isn't this cool?"

"Yeah, it is really cool!" Clare said, but then fanned herself, "It's really hot back here. Why did you have me wear a Christmas dress?"

"Because it was the only thing you owned that could be passed off at a concert." Elijah laughed, then turned Clare towards a woman standing in the corner, "Does it look like she's wearing a black plaid skirt with a pink top?"

The lady was wearing black high heeled boots with ripped skinny jeans and a loose, see through top, "Um… no, she's not."

"Exactly! Clarebear, I'm only trying to help!" Elijah grinned, then spontaneously, grabbed her hand and led her towards the other side of the backstage area, over in the general direction of where Bullfrog was headed. They soon found him standing in front of four guys, laughing and talking with them. Elijah pulled Clare over to the group.

They stood next to Bullfrog, who didn't really seem to notice them, until one of the band members said, "Why are these two kids back here?"

Bullfrog turned to them, and a smile replaced the confused expression on his face, "Oh, this is my son, and his friend, Clare."

One of the guys turned to Elijah and gave him a firm handshake, "What's up, man? I'm Tim."

Elijah shook back, "I'm Elijah."

Tim looked at him skeptically, "Elijah? Dude, with that name, it sounds like you're best friends with Jesus or something." Everyone laughed except for Elijah and Clare, "Dude, just shorten it down to Eli, it's much cooler."

Elijah, or now Eli, turned a deep shade of scarlet in the face, "Okay…" he said quietly.

Tim then looked towards Clare, "So Eli, is this your girlfriend?"

Eli and Clare noticed at the same time that they were still holding hands. They both released and shook or whipped their hands off, as if they were both contaminated. The band members roared with laughter, "Aw man, that's cute."

"Five minutes, guys," the stage manager said.

Tim looked towards Bullfrog, "Hey man, it was nice talking to you. See you after the show!" And with that, the four of the band members walked towards the stage.

Eli looked towards Clare, "Wasn't that awesome?"

Clare laughed, "Yeah, it was. So… it's Eli now, right?"

Eli laughed, "I guess so. I don't know, I kind of like that name. It's better than Elijah, isn't it?"

"I like both." Clare smiled.

And with that, the two of them walked towards the door leading to the audience, and for the both of them, they witnessed their first Rise Against concert together. Let's just say that it wasn't anything like a Hannah Montana concert. Eli showed Clare how to head bang to the music, and he showed her how to mosh; but he told her she didn't have to. When he came back out, he was drenched to the bone. Clare refused to hug or touch him.

That concert together would be the first of many things that the two would do together. Memories are based off the first time you do something. You could play on a playground every single day and have an epic adventure every time, but the one that will stand out the most is the first time, because it was a new thing then.

Later that night, as the three of them were driving back from the concert, Clare looked out the car window and saw through the trees a star especially bright that night. She knew that star was watching over her, and she knew that it would always keep her safe and would be a light to shine in her path wherever she went. Wow, did she really have to make it sound that corny? She supposed so, because there wasn't another way to put it. She closed her eyes and prayed to herself:

"_Starlight, Star Bright  
>The star I see through the trees tonight;<br>I wish I may, I wish I might,  
>Have the wish I wish…"<em>

...And Clare dosed off to sleep.

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter Five-<p> 


	6. Age Eleven

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Six – Age Eleven

* * *

><p>-<em>Wednesday<em>-

* * *

><p>On a normal school day, Clare would have had trouble waking up in the morning. She might have used the "yeah, I'm up" excuse, and then fall back asleep, or she might have simply been entirely blunt about it and asked for an extra five or ten minutes. But this wasn't just any normal school day. Rather, it was one of the two most bearable school days of the entire year.<p>

It was the first day of school for eleven year old Clare Edwards. Being that, it called for a difference in her usual morning routine. Rather than sleeping in after her alarm clock went off, she awoke at the first ring, turned it off, and sat up, wide awake and extremely excited for her first day at Degrassi Junior High. She had already picked out her 'first day of school' outfit two weeks prior, and had it lying out on her desk chair beside her bed. From downstairs, Clare could smell her mother making Clare and her grade twelve older sister Darcy pancakes – something that was only made for special school mornings. Overall, Clare knew that it was going to be a good day.

Clare and Alli had decided that they wanted to coordinate their outfits for their first day of sixth grade – they had to make a good impression to the grade sevens, grade eights, and to the rest of their peers. Clare was wearing a purple florally shirt with capris and purple ballet flats while Alli was wearing a blue floral shirt with short shorts (worn under a long black cotton skirt that would be removed upon arriving at school) and blue ballet flats. Alli had commented that the two of them were going to look sexy for their first day of school.

"_Alli… I know I probably shouldn't be asking this, but… what does sexy mean?" Clare asked, as the two of them stood in front of Alli's full length mirror and the Bhandari's house._

"_Oh, Clarebear… you are so naïve." Alli said, popping her finger on Clare's nose, "Sexy is a junior high and high school term that is just another word for hot. It means that guys find you more attractive than anything else in the world."_

For a more clear definition, Clare ended up asking Darcy later what it meant.

"_Darce… what does sexy mean?" Clare asked in the door frame of Darcy's bedroom. Darcy looked up from her magazine, giving her a skeptical look._

"_Sexy means that a guy wants to have sex with you." Darcy said, turning her eyes back to her magazine._

"_Oh, okay…" Clare said, her face turning red._

Clare decided that she didn't want to be sexy. Thus she replaced the matching short shorts with capris, because, as far as she knew, everything else in the outfit seemed innocent enough. Once she was dressed, she gathered her hair up in its' usual pony tail and worked the hair tie in. But then she stopped and looked at herself, and decided without a second thought to take out the hair tie and let her hair down loose for the day. A new school meant a new, fresh start, and Clare wanted to apply some changes to her life. Obviously, not changes that would define her as 'sexy', but she didn't want to look the same year after year.

Clare was about to head downstairs when she heard the doorbell ring. She didn't know who would be at the door at seven thirty in the morning, but nonetheless, she went downstairs to answer it. When she did open the door, she saw Eli standing there, wearing a pair of black jeans and his Rise Against t-shirt that he had gotten at the concert that they had both gone to the previous year. Clare's mother still had no idea that she went to a Rise Against concert, but had figured out a few weeks after that there hadn't been a Hannah Montana concert even remotely close to the area that night. She never brought it up, though, so Clare never knew that she knew.

Eli had changed over the summer. He was on the older side of all the students in their grade while Clare was on the younger side, meaning that, theoretically, he would physically change sooner than the rest of the boys in his grade. By this point, he was in the middle of a growth spurt, and was only an inch of two shorter than Clare. He had also let his hair grow out longer, and it was almost nearing his eyes, being swept to the side as what their grade called the "skater boy look".

Eli had his hands in his pockets casually and said, "You ready to go?"

Clare was puzzled, "Go? The bus doesn't show up for another twenty minutes."

Eli laughed, "Clare, only dorks take the bus to school. We're in _junior high. _Everyone rides their bikes to school. God, and I thought you were the _smart _one!"

"Hey!" Clare stomped her foot, "I am smart, but how was I supposed to know that?" Eli laughed, "And besides, my mom made pancakes, I can't just leave just – hey, where are you going?" Clare said as Eli pushed passed her.

"Psh, I'm going to get some pancakes!" Eli said, grinning, "I don't care if we're a couple of minutes late to school. I just want pancakes!"

Clare laughed and followed him into the kitchen, closing the front door behind her. When Clare's mother saw Eli, she was delighted, "Hi Eli! So nice of you to join us. You're in luck; I made extras!"

Clare and Eli sat at the kitchen table while Clare's mother brought out another plate from the cabinet and set it down where Eli was sitting.

"And impeccable timing too! I just finished making them!" Her mother said, as she sat down the maple syrup and pancakes between the two sixth graders. Almost immediately, the pile of pancakes seemed to vanish into thin air as both hungry kids stacked them onto their plates. Eli hogged the maple syrup and just about as quickly as the pancakes were stacked onto their plates. They were gone. Just like that. The school being about two miles from Clare's house, both kids said goodbye to Clare's mother, grabbed their backpacks, and walked out the front door.

Clare turned towards Eli, "My bikes in the garage; let me go get it. Hold on."

Clare opened the garage door and saw her pink sparkly bike over in the corner, still in prime condition from over the summer. She grabbed her helmet and tried to set it on her head, but she soon found out that between the July prior that she had ridden her bike last and that September day, her head must have gotten bigger. She saw that Eli didn't bring a helmet either and shrugged it off, seeing that since he didn't have one, that she would be fine without one as well. She rolled her bike out, and then got on her bike and peddled out.

Eli wasn't that much farther in front of her, but it was obvious that he was trying to make their bike ride a race. Clare tried peddling harder, but still found that she couldn't catch up to Eli, "Wait up, Eli! I can't keep up with you!" All Clare heard was the sound of his playful laughter up ahead. The two of them turned onto De Grassi Street, which, since they were at the very end of it, and still nearly two miles from the school, was a giant hill, going downhill.

Clare took this to her advantage and peddled as hard as she could down the hill, getting faster and faster until Eli and his bike got bigger and bigger and Clare ended up passing him. Clare looked behind herself at Eli and laughed playfully at him.

She didn't understand why he had such a horrified look on his face until he said, "Clare, look out!"

Clare whipped her head around as quickly as she could, only to be met with the black metal pole of a street lamp. Her front wheel had dug itself into a ditch right in front of the pole, sending Clare's head square into the metal pole at the same speed that she was biking down the hill.

The first sensation was the dull bang that seemed to echo throughout her head. The next was the sharp, throbbing ache that rocked her entire head, its' most intensified point being the point of impact on the center of her forehead. She heard a pair of footsteps sprinting towards her, and didn't even realize that she had fallen off her bike and onto the ground until a pair of hands lifted her head slightly.

"Oh my God, Clare, are you okay? Clare, open your eyes, Clare!" Eli said, not sure what to do.

Clare hadn't even realized that she had closed her eyes either.

Clare didn't feel like she was on the verge of passing out, but she couldn't think straight and her vision was blurry – and not necessarily from her tears. She opened her eyes and saw Eli rummaging through his backpack, a terrified look on his face.

"Shit!" Eli yelled, but Clare hardly registered it. There was a ringing in her ears that was drowning out every noise. He turned to her and held her shoulders, "Clare, do you have your phone with you?"

Clare never brought it to school, and Eli knew it too. The first day of school was no exception either. In a way, it was a rhetorical question, because Eli didn't give her time to answer, before he began searching through her bag. She tried lifting herself up, her head throbbing with an even higher intensity as she lifted herself up to a sitting position. Being able to see herself, she was able to acknowledge that both her knees and her elbows were scrapped; but if she hadn't seen it, she wouldn't have known. The pain in her head blocked out every other sensation.

Eli looked at her, and lifting her up from under the armpits, said, "We gotta get you home; your mom will know what do to." At this proximity, Eli was able to closely see Clare's eyes, and what he saw made his stomach clench; both of her pupils were slightly dilated, one being larger than the other.

"Clare... I don't think that's normal. Your eyes are acting up. "Eli said, worry etched all across his face, "We should probably hurry; come on, let's get you home."

Clare had not caught a word of what he just said because of the ringing throughout her head. Slowly, she took her first step with Eli up the hill, right before her left knee shook and gave out on her, causing her to fall to the ground. Eli managed to tighten his hold on her shoulder before she hit the ground. He was entirely shaken up about the situation. He had no idea how he was going to get Clare back to her house. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a car beginning to pull out of a nearby driveway. Taking hold of the opprotunity, Eli ran over to the black car and knocked on the window before it sped off.

The man, slightly startled, rolled down his window, and looked at Eli with a skeptical look, as if asking what he was doing. He had a younger boy sitting in the passenger seat, presumably his son, who also gave him a strange look.

Eli wasted no time, "Please, sir, my friend just hit her head on a telephone pole while we were riding our bikes to school, and she's hurt really badly." Eli motioned to Clare, who was not even one hundred feet away from the two, and upon seeing Clare on the ground, the man immediately put his car into park, opened his door, and started jogging over to Clare's form. His son opened his door and started walking over as well, though was standing more off to the side as if to not get too close.

The man knelt down next to Clare, who by this point, had her eyes closed with the apperance of sleeping. Eli knew better though. And it scared him.

"Clare! Wake up!" Eli said, shaking her shoulder, however, this time, Clare didn't stir.

"Don't do that," the man said, scolding Eli, then said, "Where does she live, do you know? I think her mother should be the one to take her to the hospital."

"To the hospital?" Eli asked, frightened.

"She's probably suffered a concussion, a bad one at that if she's not awake. Do you know where she lives?" The man asked again, this time, impatiently.

"Y-y-yeah, I know where she lives." Eli said. The man picked Clare up and quickly jogged her over to his car and put her in the backseat, Eli heading over to the otherside of the car.

The man turned to his son and said, "Go back inside, I'll call the school and tell them you'll be late."

His son immediately nodded and headed back inside. The man opened his car door and stepped inside, putting the car in drive and speeding off towards Clare's house.

And all the while, the two bikes and the two backpacks sat on the side of the road, completely forgotten about.

* * *

><p>On the first day of school, three students from Degrassi Junior High had been absent that day; two sixth graders and one seventh grader.<p>

Clare ended up being fine, in the end. Upon her mother seeing her being held in some strange man's arms, she had immediately screamed, and threatened to call the cops. Without Eli there to help explain things, she probably would have ended up calling the cops. Clare's mother took both Clare and Eli (since Eli's parents were both at work, and she felt as though she didn't have enough time to drop him off at school) to the hospital where Clare was, indeed, diagnosed with a moderate concussion and was administered antibiotics and pain killers, and was discharged from the hospital all in the same day. In the waiting room, Clare's mother had forced Eli to explain everything that had happened, all the way down to the finest detail:

_"We were racing down the hill, Mrs. Edwards, and I didn't realize that she would get in front of me. When she did get in front of me, she turned around and grinned at me, but she hadn't realized that in doing so, it turned her front bike tire so that way it wasn't going perpendicular to the street, and she ended up hitting a telephone pole straight on."_

_"Eli, why weren't the two of you wearing helmets?"_

_"Well, I don't have one… and when Clare tried hers on this morning, it didn't fit her head. So she just went without."_

Clare's mother had made sure to buy _both _of them new helmets on their way home from the hospital.

_"Mrs. Edwards, I should have never asked her to bike with me on the first day of school. I'm the one who caused all this, it's my fault!"_

_"Eli, a seemingly harmless bike ride is not your fault. However, if you two had been wearing helmets, we could have avoided all of this. But it's not your fault that Clare had decided to go without a helmet, nor is it your fault that you don't own a helmet. Clare's always been taught 'safety first' and that going on her bike without a helmet is a dangerous thing. I hope you understand this too."_

_"Oh yes, of course I do, Mrs. Edwards."_

_"So how did the man who helped you two get Clare back home come into the picture?"_

_"He was pulling out of his driveway, Mrs. Edwards. There was no one else on the street, and I had already tried walking Clare up the hill, but she couldn't get up. I had no other choice but to ask him. He had his son with him, so I assumed he wouldn't be dangerous."_

_"He had a son with him?"_

_"Well… he asked his son to go inside before he took us back to Clare's house. But yes, he did have his son with him."_

_"Well, I feel better knowing that he has kids of his own, but I want you to know, Eli, that talking to strangers under any other circumstance is a dangerous thing. You two could have gotten really hurt from this guy, had he not been very nice."_

_"I know."_

_"But since you didn't have a choice, I'm glad that you asked him for help. Now, we're going to have to find out this man's address. I want you and Clare to both write a separate thank you letter to him."_

_"Yes, Mrs. Edwards."_

On the way home from the hospital that day, Eli wouldn't let go of Clare's hand as he kept apologizing to her over and over again. Being drowsy and a tad loopy from the pain medication, Clare's speech was slow and slurred as she said, "It's not your fault." But in Eli's mind, it was his fault. He had caused that pain on her; there was nothing else to it.

He made a vow that he would never let her be hurt like that, or in any other way, again, and although he would never care to admit it, she was precious to him. He cherished her as a friend, but something in his mind told him that it was more than as a friend, but he knew that he wouldn't dare ruin the friendship that they had already established together.

That night, two children could be seen at their separate windows, looking out at the stars and saying their prayers and wishes. Clare's was the usual; 'thank you for keeping me well and alive, Sir; I know that I am nothing without You." But Elijah's was different that night. More different than for any other reason because he usually never prayed or wished upon a star, unless he was with Clare, however, his prayer was for Clare, his best friend, so he made the exception valid:

"_Starlight, Star Bright  
>To the star Clare sees tonight;<br>I wish I may, I wish I might,  
>Have the wish I wish tonight."<em>

He wished that Clare would still want to be his friend after all that had happened earlier that day. Even if she didn't want to be his friend, he wished safety towards her in everything that she did. If it wasn't the traditional sense of love, then it was a friendship type of true love. He didn't want anything for himself; he wanted it all for Clare. He wanted to give everything that he had to his best friend Clare. The only thing that he wanted for himself was that he didn't want to lose Clare, if that wasn't too selfish of him. He wanted them to be friends forever; was that so much to ask?

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter Six-<p>

_Edited 1/14/12_


	7. Age Twelve

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Seven: Age Twelve

* * *

><p>-<em>Friday-<em>

* * *

><p>Honors English was going to be the death of her. It really was. Since it was the end of the second semester at Degrassi Junior High, all of Clare's teachers decided to believe that their class was the students' absolute number one priority, and thus made it their privilege to assign tests, projects, books, anything that had yet to be done and needed to be done so in such a small amount of time. But none piled on the workload quite as heavily as her honors English class. In honors algebra I, she was given a packet to do over break. In honors history, she had a project over the American Civil War. In honors biology, they had a research paper to write. In French, she had practice written and speaking tests every day that she had to study for. But honors English managed to top the rest of them. With a paper to write over To Kill a Mockingbird, a unit test, and The Tragedy of Julius Caesar that she had to read and interpret, all due on that next Monday along with her other classes, Clare was literally drowning.<p>

She could handle algebra – it was simply tedious and repetitive to her, however. History was simply memorizing facts and being able to apply them, and she could do that. Biology would just be copying sentences down from the internet onto her paper, and switching around the words to make them hers. French would be repetitious conjugating verbs and tenses. But honors English was an entirely other story.

Sure, she loved reading, and writing came as a sixth sense to her, but all of the literary terms she had to know for the unit test, not to mention that the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird were more than likely to show up once or twice on the test, _along _with the vocabulary and themes and motifs of Julius Caesar – and then she had to_ interpret_ Julius Caesar; and what if she interpreted it the wrong way? What if her thoughts on the climax of the tragedy were not what her teacher had in mind, and thus she was marked off for it? Honors English was like picking poppies; picking something with poison in it, but attractive to the eye.

She probably would have simply dropped dead right then and there when she was assigned all of the work if it weren't for her best friend Eli giving her a calming glance from across the room. He was the only grade seven who could match her when it came to workloads, and they often found themselves studying together. They also walked home from school together, since Clare was deathly afraid of riding a bicycle since her accident a little over a year ago.

Ever since hitting her head that last year, Clare found that her thoughts came to her a little bit slower than they usually did. After talking with the family doctor, he said that her brain and head were still recovering from the accident, and that in a few months' time, she'd be back up to her accelerated learning routines. However, she never was able to think as clearly as she was able to before. Sure, she was still the brightest grade seven at Degrassi Junior High, Eli coming up a very close second, but things just never seemed to return to full-on normalcy for Clare.

She also found that she was prone to periodic migraines that would shut her out for hours, and sometimes even a full day. Whenever Eli was around to witness one of these, he never seemed to leave her side, staying with her in her bedroom – with the blinds shut closed because the light irritated the migraine even more – and did nothing more but hold her and rub circles into her arm. This was becoming the new normalcy for the duo. It wasn't anything romantic, but it truly showed the spiritual bond between the two; whenever one was hurting, the other was as well.

Soon after being assigned the work for honors English and being given the rubrics for the assignments, the final bell of the day rang, signaling the end of the school day and signaling the beginning of the weekend, of which for Eli and Clare would not be full of fun and laughter of the summer soon to come, but rather would be full of studying and writing and reading and interpreting together. Not to mention their other classes.

Eli walked over to Clare after the bell rang, which became custom to them in that school year since they had nearly every class together.

"You okay? You're looking a bit pale." Eli said, smirking.

"Okay? Yeah, why shouldn't I be?" Clare said, sarcasm dripping off her tongue.

"Looks like we got a long weekend ahead of us." Eli said, sighing.

Clare began walking out of the room, Eli following swiftly behind her, "I'll be lucky if I don't get a migraine this weekend. Maybe then I'll get half of this stuff done."

"Don't fret," Eli said, smiling at his use of a new vocabulary word, "We'll work on it together. _All _of it. It's going to get done."

"We'll see about that," Clare said, turning up to the staircase, "You know, I don't understand how all of this doesn't overwhelm you."

"Sometimes it does," Eli admitted, "But I'm careful not to let it show so much."

"Always the man, aren't you?"

"I try."

By this time, Clare had reached her locker. The lockers of the grade sevens were categorized by their last names, so last names starting with E and F were on the left side of the hallway; G and H were on the right side. She and Eli had decently close lockers together. They didn't have to stifle through what they needed this time around – it was grab everything from the bottom of the locker and pray that it would fit into their backpacks, and, if that worked, pray that the bag didn't rip or break their backs on their way up the hill.

Eli was done grabbing all of his things before Clare was, and as he walked over to her locker, with his backpack over one shoulder, he had to suppress a smile at Clare's attempt to get the zipper to the backpack closed. He bent down next to her, swatted away her insistent hands, and zipped it up for her. Then, before she could protest, he picked up Clare's bag and swung it over his other shoulder, handling both of the thousand pound bags.

"Eli," Clare said, impatiently, "Give that back. I can carry my own weight."

"We haven't gotten this much work all year, and I'm going to be completely honest: you're really bad at hiding how hard it is to carry your bag up the hill on a _normal _workload," Eli said, smirking, "I got this. It's really not that heavy."

Clare gave him a quizzical look, "That has to be more than double what you usually carry, and I can't imagine you having super human strength."

"Well, this is a bit heavy," Eli said, shifting the weight around with his shoulders, "But it's nothing that I can't handle."

Clare sighed, "Always the man, aren't you?"

"Always."

* * *

><p>When Clare and Eli made it to Clare's house, Clare saw a car outside her house that didn't belong. She looked at Eli and sighed.<p>

"I think my mom has company over – how about we go study at your house? You go on ahead though – my mom will probably want to see me before I leave. I'll catch up with you in a bit, okay?" Clare asked.

"No problem," Eli said, "I'll bring your backpack over to my house, okay?"

"No Eli, that's really unness-" but Eli already had his back turned and was walking back down the street.

"I got this, Clare."

"Alright…" Clare said under her breath, before walking up the drive way and through her front door.

As she closed the front door and turned around, Clare locked eyes with two people she thought she would never have to confront again.

_Surprise_, Clare thought.

Inside her front living room, she saw sitting on the couch the man who had helped her after her accident a year ago, along with his son, who was sitting next to him, looking awkward as if he didn't belong.

It was the first time Clare had seen the man since the accident, but Clare remembered the boy's face and saw him periodically throughout Degrassi Junior High. He was a grade eight and his name was Jake. He was on the school soccer team and every girl except for Clare seemed to always be swooning over him. Clare didn't understand why. It wasn't that he was bad looking; in fact, he had some pretty good features about him. But she didn't see him as "beautiful" or "god-like" as some of the girls suggested.

Jake's father was the first to say something, "Oh hey there, Clare! Long time no see! How's the head?"

Clare immediately didn't like him. Thus she didn't respond. Clare's mother took the most opportune time to enter the room.

"Oh, Clare, I'm so glad you're home! You remember Mr. Martin, right? From that day last year?" Her mother said, not wanting to explicitly say what happened that day.

"Yes." Clare said, one word answers seeming like the best way to weasel her way out of there and back over to Eli's house.

"Well, since then, Glen and I – I mean, Mr. Martin – well… we've been seeing each other recently, and thought that now was the best time to introduce him and his son to you."

"I don't understand, mom... I've already met them before. I know who they are."

"Well, sweetie..." her mother paused, looking for the right words, before saying, "After he helped you out that one day last year, I, well, took him out to dinner. And that dinner soon turned into a few dinners, and well, since then, we've been dating."

Coldly, Clare looked from Mr. Martin and then to his son Jake. She said in a tight voice, "It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Martin," she nodded towards Jake, "Jake." She then turned back to her mother, "Mom, Eli and I have to study, we got the most homework that we've ever gotten for honors English and we need to get started as soon as we can."

"Where are you two studying?"

"Eli's."

"Okay sweetie, study hard."

"Wait-"

It was Jake's voice that caught their attention, "Do you have Mrs. Thompson for honors English?"

His voice was a lot lower than she thought it would be. It wasn't too low for a grade eight or anything like that, she just expected it to be… higher. Perhaps? Regardless, she found herself stumbling for the right word before the simplest word left her mouth: "Yes."

He sighed, playing with his hands, "A little word of advice for the final unit test: the essay portion is over the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird and Julius Caesar. You have to compare and contrast them and tell how they are alike with specific detail. She never changes the final."

Jake did not look like the type who could tackle honors English, but she found herself saying "thank you", regardless of her bewilderment.

He gave her a small smile, before she left, "See you around, I guess?"

"Yeah," she said, "See you around."

The son was easily preferable over the father.

* * *

><p>"So a random grade eight just gave you the unit test essay prompt? Something doesn't sound right here."<p>

"One, he's not a random grade eight anymore; my mom's dating his dad now. Two, he seemed genuine. Like he actually wanted to make sure I did well on it. His class probably struggled with it and he wanted to make sure no one else struggled with it as well."

"Still, what if we study the things he told you about, but then the prompt is different?"

"Then we'll know a lot about how even though there's four hundred plus years between them, that To Kill a Mockingbird and Julius Caesar are somehow connected."

"If we fail this test, I'm going to beat him up."

"You do that."

It had been random bickering for the six hours that the two had been studying together after school. Cece had made the two sandwiches around dinner time, and told Clare that she had already arranged for Clare to spend the night at their house so they could have more time to finish their homework. The two of them were irritated almost down to nothing, and it was the small things that were setting them off; pencil eraser shavings, the front door banging indicating that Bullfrog was home, and Caesar being a complete and utter idiot and not realizing that Brutus was, indeed, going to kill him for power.

"Clare, let's take a break. We've been at this for a while, and I'm fried."

"Yeah… yeah, that's a good idea." Clare said, putting down her pencil and paper and massaging her temples.

"You okay?" Eli asked, but knowing exactly what it was.

"I tried to ignore it before, but it only grew in size since dinner. I… I literally can't think right now."

Eli sighed, putting his hand on her back supportively as she stood up. As quickly as she stood up, though, she was wobbling on her legs, holding onto the wall for support. Eli had never seen Clare's migraines this bad and was immediately at her side, holding most of her weight and leading her towards the stairs.

"I think we're done studying for a while." Eli said, helping her up the stairs. Clare only whimpered in response, and Eli's heart sank; he couldn't stand to see her like this.

He helped her into his room and laid her onto the pull out bed that Cece had set up for her. She immediately curled into a ball, her head in between her hands and slightly rocking back and forth. He knew better than to ask her if she wanted a few ibuprofen; they never helped those kinds of headaches. He sighed and pulled the blanket up over her, watching as her body completely submerged itself in unconsciousness in a matter of seconds.

He walked over to the window, and saw that even though it was nine o'clock, the sun was only just setting. Eli was scared; scared for Clare, scared for them, and scared for that unit test. He did what he did every night since Clare had introduced it to him four years ago when they were eight. He didn't know if it worked or not; some things he wished for would come true, and some wouldn't – but he'd do it that night especially for Clare's sake, since she wouldn't be able to that night.

He lifted his chin up to the stars, his hands holding the window frame as he said:

"Starlight, Star Bright,  
>The first star I see tonight:<br>I wish she may, I wish she might,  
>Have the wish she wishes tonight."<p>

He prayed that he and Clare would be able to pass all of their finals with flying colors. He also prayed that Clare's headaches would soon become a thing of the past. No one should have had to go through what Clare was, especially at such the young age that Clare was at. He loved Clare, as his best friend; the one he could turn to for anything, and he cherished her. He let he be damned if someone take that away from him.

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter Seven-<p>

_Edited 1/14/12_


	8. Age Thirteen

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Eight: Age Thirteen

* * *

><p><em>-Sunday-<em>

* * *

><p>"Do you, Helen Edwards, take Glen Martin, to be your husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; as long as you both shall live?"<p>

"I do."

And do you, Glen Martin, take Helen Edwards, to be your wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

"Then… you may kiss your bride."

Applause erupted through the chapel as both Clare's mother and Jake's father grabbed each other's hands and kissed each other. Clare looked to the floor. Clare could not deny it; they were a pretty cute couple. She just did not understand how less than a year of dating could turn into a few weeks of being engaged and then becoming married.

It wasn't as if Clare didn't like Glen – sure she really didn't talk to him that much, and thus a man she barely knew was going to become her new step father – she was happy for her mother. It was just that if it were up to Clare, that they would get married after a few years of dating; preferably when she was graduated from high school.

"And for the first time ever, I have the privilege of introducing all of you for the first time ever: Mr. Glen and Mrs. Helen Martin. Congratulations!"

Wedding music exploded from the mini orchestra sitting in the corner of the chapel, and the two newlyweds walked down the aisle with the largest grins on their faces, never once letting go of one another. Then it was time for the wedding party to leave the chapel. Being middle-aged and having not as many friends, and having two kids the same age, both Clare and Jake had been named the maid of honor and the best man, respectively. Clare thought it probably would have gone to Darcy, if said Darcy hadn't refused to come back from college for the wedding…

"_I'm not going."_

"_Darcy, I am getting married and this is what you have to say? That even though I am going to be the happiest that I am ever going to be, you are going to skip out on my wedding? I am ashamed of you."_

"_Mom, how long have you been dating this man? Six months? And you never once bothered to call me or write to me saying in the least, "yeah… I met this man". I've never even met the guy. You never even asked me whether or not you should get married to him. Why the hell should I fly out from college just to see you get married to a man that I have never even met before?"_

"_You'll meet him at the wedding, when you come."_

"If _I come, which by the sounds of it, I'm not. I'm having the best years of my life right now, and you want me to fly back just to see you get married to a man who is going to break your heart in a few seconds? Trust me, mom – the world is in black and white. There are rarely any good people out in the world anymore."_

"_But you still think that Peter is a good influence."_

"_Here's the difference: How long have I been dating Peter: since _high school. _I've been dating him for near five years now. It's taken me five years to realize that he is _the _one for me, not six months. Six months into our relationship, I was just dating him for the ride. But five years later, I know that I can't live without him. It should take someone more than six months to realize that they're in love and that person is right for them."_

"_I'm in love!"_

"_No, mom, you're in love with the idea of being in love, which is the fundamental reason why I'm not coming to the wedding; it would be like seeing two students getting married. They grow up, and the marriage wouldn't last. You have yet to grow up and learn with Glen, which is why your marriage isn't going to last. I'm going to be pretty blunt about that. _Your marriage isn't going to last."

"…_goodbye, Darcy." _

…and Clare's mother turned off the phone.

Jake held out his arm for Clare, and she took it, walking down the aisle and taking a good look at the wedding guests. About half of them were friends and family of the Martin's; the other half were friends and family of the Edward's. Clare scanned the chapel for her best friend, and found him sitting in the middle of the left side, sitting between his sobbing mother and dad, who was laughing at his mother's sobbing. _Typical…_ Eli gave her a small smirk and winked, as if to say that he'd be out there in a second to get her away from all of the people. If there was one thing Clare didn't like about weddings, it was the amount of people at the weddings. If there was something about this wedding in particular that she didn't like, then it was the amount of people that she honestly _didn't _know.

Jake tugged on her arm a bit, and Clare realized that she had slowed down her walking by a few paces. She brought herself back up to speed and plastered a smile on her face for all of the wedding guests. Jake laughed.

"You're blushing, Clare Edwards." Jake teased, poking into her side.

If there was one thing that Clare and her mother fought over about the wedding, it was about which last name Clare was going to use. Her mother insisted that they become strictly a 'Martin family', but Clare didn't want that. Even though she hadn't seen her father in the better of five years, she still wanted to keep her last name. It would stop all of the trouble of people having to get used to the name change, and the trouble of people wondering why Clare ended up marrying Jake. That's not how it works, kids.

She ended up getting her way, and getting to be the odd one in the family with a different last name. Just the way she would have wanted it.

Clare shrugged it off and said, "I'm not blushing. It's just really warm in here."

Jake laughed, "Hence why you were shivering throughout the entire ceremony."

Clare turned to him and gave him a look. By this time they were outside the chapel, getting ready for the little meet and greet from the wedding guests, "You're not going to get the answer you want, _Jake Martin_, so you may as well stop now."

The first of the wedding guests started to file in. They stopped in front of the bride and groom and looked as if they were about to have a full conversation with them, even with the mass of people behind them who were also trying to get out of the chapel.

Jake leaned into Clare, "That's Papa and Nana; my grandparents. Papa will squeeze you into a hug, and Nana has trouble hearing, so be prepared for that."

Both Papa and Nana said their respective congratulations to the bride and groom, and then to Clare and Jake as well, and Clare saw the next people file through that she immediately recognized.

She whispered to Jake, "Those are my grandparents; they're from the states – Connecticut, actually – I haven't seen them in _years!_ Be wary of their accent, though. But they're some of the nicest people you might just ever meet."

More and more people came and went – their faces being mixed together and forgotten about, until Clare saw the one family she had been waiting to walk from the chapel doors. Eli's parents congratulated Clare's mom and Jake's dad, but Eli completely bypassed them and went straight to Clare and Jake. He stopped at Jake first, shaking hands and properly introducing himself as "Clare's best friend". He then went to Clare, and before she knew it, he leaned in, and whispered in her ear, "Come on!"

He grabbed her by the hand and weaved her through the crowd trying to get to the reception room. He then veered left and Clare found herself not knowing where Eli was taking her. A few more turns were made, the walls and interior of the old church seeming to get older and older the farther they went, until Clare found herself outside of a door. Eli opened it, and light shined onto their faces.

He took her hand and pulled her into a miniature, overgrown – and probably forgotten about – courtyard. It was small – probably no bigger than the average sized bedroom – and the overgrown plants took up most of the room. In the center, there was a large tree, casting shadows over the place, and with the overgrown plants and moss and rocks – made it look like a place out of a storybook. He took her over to the tree and they both sat down under it, blending in with the scenery.

"Eli… what is this place? You couldn't have known about it beforehand, could you have?"

"Well…" Eli smirked, "Me and my dad did some exploring before the wedding. It's an old building – from the 1800's. We were hoping to find some ghosts, or some buried treasure, or some trap doors. Well, instead of all that, we found this place."

"Eli… this place is beautiful!"

Eli looked as if he was about to say something, but then he stopped himself, and instead just looked at Clare, his hand still holding onto hers.

"In all honesty, you looked like you were about to pass out any second, and your new brother Jake seemed completely oblivious to it. Truth be told, I mainly wanted to get you out of the crowds to make sure you were alright."

Clare laughed, "Well, it wasn't the worst thing in the world... I mean, yes, I couldn't remember names, and yes, I couldn't remember faces, but overall, I was doing pretty good… I'm still doing pretty well."

"That's good." Eli said, and he let his eyes wander around the courtyard. If someone were to walk in on the scene, it would look entirely harmonious to them. With Clare in her sea green bridesmaid dress and Eli wearing a purple dress shirt with a tie and dress pants, someone would think that they complimented each other perfectly.

Clare gathered her dress and stood up, Eli coming along too, "I'm glad you took me here; it's absolutely beautiful here."

Eli turned around and looked at her, his warm green eyes looking at her longingly, "It pales in comparison."

He grabbed her hand again and yanked her through the old door. Clare wouldn't have noticed if he had dragged her through a brick wall – only one thing truly stood out in her mind.

He had just called her beautiful.

* * *

><p>The bride and groom and wedding party sat at a large table in the middle of the reception hall. As opposed to traditional seating, with the newlyweds and wedding party seated at the front with the least closest friends sitting far away from them, they decided ahead of time that it would be more beneficial to have them sit in the middle of the hall and to have closest friends and family surrounding them in a circle, followed by the rest surrounding. There sat in the center of the table Clare's mother and Jake's father, with Clare and Jake sitting on both sides, respectively, and then the rest of the bridesmaids and groomsmen on either side. To say that Clare was bored would be an understatement. All she wanted to do was crawl back to the courtyard and relax, but rather instead, she was inside, attempting at small talk with her mother, Glen, and her new brother Jake, but found that they were doing most of the talking.<p>

Before the meal was served, there was to be a small first dance, as opposed to a father daughter dance and vice versa. To say that she was excited would be a lie, but anything would be better than just sitting there waiting. Even having to dance with the best man, being Jake.

As if on cue, the man who married her mom and Jake's dad walked up to the stage with a microphone in his hand. Very clearly, he said, "Before the meal starts, I would just like to congratulate one of my best friends for getting married to such a wonderful lady, and I would like to congratulate both of you." A short applause was heard, "And right now, I would like to start the husband and wife's first dance as a married couple. So if the two of you could take the floor…"

Glen held out his hand for Helen, who blushed while she took it, and they stepped down from the table and onto the floor. A sweet song emerged slowly from the speakers and they grabbed onto each other, holding their hands and holding each other close. Clare had to admit that her mother looked absolutely beautiful in her white dress and that Glen was giving her the most loving look that she had ever seen. They looked like something out of a fairy tale – a dream come true.

After about a minute of the song, the man announced that it was time for the bridesmaids and groomsmen to take the floor as well. Just like how his father did, Jake held out his hand for Clare, and she accepted it, stepping down to the floor with him, and holding him close, but not as close as her mother and his father were.

Jake looked at Clare and smiled, "You know, you do look beautiful today."

Clare giggled, "You're not the first person to tell me that today."

Jake turned his eyes to a table subtly, before turning back to her, "Your friend really seems to like you."

"We've been friends since we were six years old; of course he likes me." Clare said.

"But he _really _likes you; more than just liking someone as a person. I've seen the way he looks at you. It's one of complete adoration."

Clare didn't know what to say; Jake changed the subject.

"I know that we've known each other for all of six months, and I don't know what it's like to have a younger sister, but I want to make it clear that I will always be there for you. I want to be like an older brother to you, and someone that you can rely on and trust things with." Jake reinforced his grip on her, "I love you, Clare, as a sister and a friend, and nothing can ever sever that."

Clare smiled and rested her head on Jake's chest. She hardly even noticed the man announcing that the rest of the guests could dance if they so choose. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Glen was giving them a strange glare, but she ignored it.

"Excuse me, but can I intervene?"

Clare looked over to her other side and saw Eli standing there, looking at Jake calmly. Jake smiled and patted Clare's back, "She's all yours." She felt his grip pull away and saw Eli turn to face her. She smiled and put her arms around his neck, as he put his hands on her waist. For a few seconds, they simply swayed to the music, before Eli opened his mouth and began speaking.

"So what were you two talking about just now?" Eli said, smiling.

Clare sighed, "He wants to be like an older brother to me. He wants to look out for me and to make sure that I'm okay. In all honesty, a lot of it is completely unnecessary, but I find that the thought behind it is what matters the most."

"You're right, a lot of it _is _completely unnecessary." Eli looked into her eyes, "You have _me."_

"What?"

"What?" Eli retaliated, smiling back at her, "I didn't say a word."

Clare smiled, a blush creeping up on her cheeks. Eli _did_ like her, that much was obvious, and their constant flirting was making Clare have butterflies in her stomach. Eli was her best friend, but was she ready to take their relationship to the next level? Clare could see it happening, she really could. After all, he was the only person who could truly make her feel that way. He made her feel like she could fly, like she could conquer the world; like she was invincible.

They held each other close, not saying anything more. Clare's mother took note of this, and searched the crowd for Cece's gaze. When she found her, she was dancing with Bullfrog, looking entirely like two high school sweethearts all over again. She locked eyes with her and motioned towards Clare and Eli, and when Cece saw them, she completely squealed. It was Cece's dream come true.

That night was completely magical for many people that night for their own reasons. Helen and Glen, because they were happily married together, Cece and Bullfrog, because their son and Clare were entirely happy together, Jake, because he had a new younger sister that trusted him as much as he trusted her, and Clare and Eli, because as much as both of them wouldn't dare to admit it to each other, they were both _madly in like_ with each other, and being thirteen years old, didn't necessarily know how to act upon it.

Clare looked at her hand on Eli's shoulder and saw her friendship bracelet, the one that Eli had given for her for her ninth birthday that had been engraved "Clare & Eli~Best Friends 4ever", dangling off of her wrist and she smiled. Beyond that, out the large glass windows and above the trees, she saw a series of three stars, and she closed her eyes and whispered to herself:

"_Starlight, Star Bright,  
>The three stars I see tonight;<br>I wish I may, I wish I might,  
>Have the wish I wish tonight."<em>

She wished that she and Eli would be best friends forever – that was a common wish that she often wished on a starry night, and so far that wish had been staying true, so she made sure to always reinforce it. She also wished that as long as the feelings were true between the two of them that maybe… just maybe they could take their relationship to the next level. Clare wished on it and hoped that it would come true.

She hardly even noticed that she song was over and that they were about to start to meal. Before she could even pull away, however, she felt a small caress on her cheek. She looked at Eli to find him blushing madly, and then in the next second, he had walked away, back to his table. Clare turned around and put a hand to her cheek, smiling and flying inwardly.

Eli had just kissed her.

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter Eight-<p> 


	9. Age Fourteen

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Nine – Age Fourteen

* * *

><p><em>-Friday-<em>

* * *

><p>It was a cold winter day in the Toronto area, but this day was the same as any other day for Clare and Eli – with the exception of the snow: trudge down a foot and a half of snow on their way to school, sit in freezing classrooms, reluctantly accept their mountains of homework, and then trudge back up two and a half feet of snow back to their houses, and sit by the fire with hot cocoa, willing for their toes to have feeling in them again. Then, on a normal school day, they would start their homework, hopefully be done by dinner time, and then after dinner, they would text each other before they went to bed. A very systematic life-style; the two would not have it any other way.<p>

Since Jake had spring sport training after school at Degrassi High, he didn't walk up the hill with them after school. He did, however, walk to school with them in the mornings.

On this particular cold day, as Clare and Eli were walking up the hill back to their houses, both did not have nearly as much homework as they usually did have, especially for a weekend, and especially for going from junior high to high school. Both were blabbering on about what they were doing that weekend.

"And so tonight, I'm probably going to catch up on some forgotten sleep," Clare was saying, "And then tomorrow, my mom, Jake and I are going ice skating – Glen isn't coming, he has work – and then tomorrow night, I'll probably get some more sleep, and then on Sunday, myself, my mom, and Jake will go to church – Glen isn't coming to that either, he'll be sleeping from work the night before – and then I'll probably work on the little amount of homework we got over the weekend after church… and then I'll go and sleep some more. What about you? Doing anything exciting over the weekend?"

"Oh you know…" Eli said, grinning, "I'll just be locked up in my room, listening to angry teenage angst music, as you like to call it… and probably do some sleeping." Eli said, with a laugh under his breath.

Clare punched him in the shoulder playfully, "You know, if you just asked, you could always go ice skating with us…"

"Nah, I'm not very good at ice-skating."

"Says who?"

"Says my mom when we ice skated at the turn of the new millennium and I fell down and hit my head."

"Oh you poor thing." Clare said, giggling, "That explains so much!"

"Oh really?" Eli challenged, "What does it explain?"

"Oh nothing…" Clare said, giggling as she sped up.

"Oh, well, I'm sure it meant_ something_, Clara Diana Edwards!" Eli said, laughing, and picking up his pace and matching his pace with hers.

"I meant _nothing_, Elijah James Goldsworthy!" Clare said, going out into a full out "sprint" up the hill, which was rather just a slow jog since there was two and a half feet of snow.

"Oh, well I'll be the judge of that!"

Eli ran up the hill after her, closing the gap between them. He grabbed a hold of her elbow and Clare squealed, trying to get away from him. He grabbed it again and, very effectively, kept a hold of it. There must have been some ice hiding underneath of the snow, because in the next second, Eli didn't have any footing and he fell sideways onto the snow covered grass, effectively taking Clare with him.

The scene looked like something out of a movie. Clare fell straight on top of Eli with her hair all in her face. The snow was falling down on them, making them look like they completely belonged in the snow together. Both were giggling and laughing – two best friends, always to be friends forever – and nothing would ever change that.

Clare lifted herself off of Eli and held out her hand for him. He grabbed her hand gently… and then pulled her right back into the snow. Clare landed face forward in the snow, and when she came back up, it looked as though someone had pushed her face down into a cake. Snow covered her face, but Eli could tell she was laughing. The snow was brushed away and the excess snow melted away quickly. She turned towards Eli, a fire burning in the bit of her stomach for revenge, and, with a huge grin, she tackled him right back in the snow.

On their way back home from school, the two ended up having a snow fight that the two would remember for the rest of their lives. They threw snowballs, rolled around in the snow together, and by the end, they were both contesting to see who could make the best snow angel. Eli won.

And throughout the entire ordeal, both loved every minute of it.

* * *

><p>If Clare's mother wanted for Clare to have some "family time" with the rest of her family, then she would have to wait until Clare finished the third Twilight book.<p>

Clare had found her appreciation for vampires one day while doing research on mythological creatures. She glazed her eyes when it came to ghosts and werewolves, but when it came to vampires, Clare had immediately found them fascinating. She knew every aspect of vampires: the traditional Dracula type vampire, vampires based off of The Phantom of the Opera, ancient vampires that lived in the newly formed sewers the Romans invented, and her newest addiction: Edward Cullen and the Cullen Clan.

The books, she had to admit, weren't awful. They had a decent plot line and stayed consistent overall. Clare's only complaint, however, would be how the extended metaphors just seemed to drone on for pages at a time, and the lack of good, moral themes in the plot line, like how Bella was basically choosing her love based upon looks, and not based upon how good her previous relationship with Jacob was. The one thing that kept her hooked for the long run, however, was the extremely detailed descriptions of the vampires and how they came to become vampires, which was what Eclipse focused in on. Overall, she subconsciously used the books to help fuel her fan fiction desires; she kept a notepad by her side at all times.

And thus, Clare was literally submerged into her Twilight book. She only subconsciously heard her phone ring in the background, and, without taking her eyes off of her book, she leaned over and grabbed her pink cell phone, flipped it open, and tore her eyes away from the book to read the text:

_You want to go out to The Dot tonight for some hot chocolate? Get away from the families for a bit?_

Well, that was new. Eli had never asked her out to The Dot before. It wasn't a fancy place or anything; it was just a small cutesy café down the street from their houses that a lot of the high schooler's went to. In fact, Clare remembered that place specifically because Darcy would always go there with her boyfriend, Peter, while they were still in high school. She pondered for a second as to why he would ask her to go…

And then it hit her. And the moment it did, Clare's cheeks flushed red. It was for the same reasons that Darcy and Peter had always gone there.

Eli had just asked her out on a date.

Clare did the only thing that she could do in such a predicament; she picked up her pink cell phone and held down the number five speed dial: the only person besides Eli that she could talk to.

The phone rang three times before a chipper voice answered the phone: "Hello?"

"Hey, Alli; listen… I might need your help with something?"

"What can my expertise skills do for you, Clarebear?"

"Well… I just got a text from Eli…" Clare trailed off.

"Clare, you're talking like this is the first time that he's ever texted you; spit it out!"

"Well… Eli just asked me out to The Dot…"

The phone on the other line was silent for about ten whole heartbeats. Clare had begun to wonder if the call was lost or if Alli had hung up on her. Just when she was almost sure that she did, Clare heard an ear piercing scream come from the other end of the line.

"Oh my gosh, Clare!" Alli squealed, probably more enthused about the entire situation than Clare was, "About time too! And he finally got the guts to ask you out? Oh my gosh, what did you say back to him? I want full details."

"I haven't texted him back yet…" Clare confessed.

The phone was silent for three more heartbeats before a yell of exasperation was heard from the other end, "What? Clare! You just left him waiting? That is the number one thing that you do not do when a guy you like asks you out!"

"I'm sorry…" Clare said, biting her lip and looking down.

Clare heard a sigh come from the other end of the line, "Don't worry, Clare, we can fix this. I'm coming over; I'm going to make you look like the sexiest kitten the world has ever seen!"

"_What did you say, Alli_?"

"Nothing!" Alli's voice chimed, "Text him and tell him you'll meet him at The Dot in forty-five minutes. I'll be over there in five." And with that, Alli hung up.

The phone was held at Clare's ear as the reality of the situation became real. Shakily, she opened a text message and sent it off as quickly as she could.

_Be there in forty-five. :)_

* * *

><p>Many make-up brushes and pink outfits later, it seemed that Alli was finally satisfied with her new creation.<p>

"Alright, Clarebear, _now_ you're ready." Alli said, walking in a circle around Clare, inspecting her work, "My, I have outdone myself this time, haven't I?"

"Can I please look in the mirror now, Alli?"

"Oh my gosh, Eli will not be able to take his eyes off of you."

"I don't want him looking at me like _that!"_

"Yes, you do! Guys love looking at girls' butts!"

"Alli…"

"Clare…"

Both girls held their stare for a good three seconds. It was Alli who began to break first. Both girls busted out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. Clare, still having not have seen a mirror, was still waiting as patiently as she could for Alli to give her the okay. But even patience sometimes ran as thin as a needle sometimes.

"Clare, don't laugh, you're going to smear your makeup!" Alli said, taking a cotton swab to Clare's eyes and dabbing them gently. Clare, becoming exasperated, looked up to the ceiling and huffed quietly.

"And… _now_ you can look!" Alli said, grabbing Clare's hands and moving her towards the mirror in Clare's bathroom. When Clare caught sight of her reflection, she gasped in shock. She didn't see Clare in the mirror.

What she did see was a girl with curly auburn hair and bright blue eyes, two things that she had always had, but had never been so pronounced before. The small amount of make-up Alli put on was a small amount of mascara to make her eyes pop, and a very light, pink blush. Alli had stuffed Clare into a pair of her skinny jeans that, apparently, made her butt look "fantastic", and a frilly pink top with hints of a light blue in it. All in all, Clare didn't recognize herself, and she sort of liked it.

"So, what do you think?" Alli asked, hovering over Clare's shoulder.

"I… I like it." Clare said, smiling at her reflection, "I just don't want for Eli to think that I dressed up just for him."

"But you _did _dress up for him! It's your first date! And it is also the perfect excuse to introduce you to your new best friend: mascara!"

"Oh, hush, Alli. You'll be lucky if I manage to put on mascara once a week!"

"Well, I am going to accidentally leave the mascara on your bathroom counter so that way you'll always have it when you want it."

"Ugh, fine." Clare said, looking over to the clock. She still had fifteen minutes left until she needed to meet Eli at The Dot, meaning that she had to leave within the next couple of minutes if she wanted to get there on time walking.

She and Alli walked down the stairs to the living room. Glen was watching the sports channel with Jake, and Clare could smell what smelled like spaghetti coming from the kitchen, where her mother was sure to be making it. Upon entering the living room, Alli flirtatiously waved to Jake, who smiled and waved back, but upon seeing Clare, dropped the smile, and stared.

Clare gave him a quizzical look, and noticed that Glen was giving her a weird look. Not like Jake's, but rather a more condescending look, "Where are _you _going tonight?"

"I'm going out with Eli for some hot chocolate at The Dot." Clare said happily, turning around so that way she could grab her grey boots.

Clare's mother, obviously having heard this, came into the room, "Wait – you're going _out _with Eli?"

"Just out for some hot chocolate, mom." Clare said, at the exact same time that Alli said, "Yes."

Her mother's face lit up with joy, whereas Glen's face lit up with the television screen, a scowl settling in onto his features, "Well, I hope that the two of you have a wonderful time _out! _What time do you think you'll be back home?"

"No later than nine, I should assume."

"Is Alli going with you, too?"

"No, Mrs. Edwards." Alli said, "I was just helping Clare get ready for tonight."

"Oh well, she looks lovely tonight, as usual." Clare's mother said, "And it's Martin, now, Alli. Mrs. Martin."

"Oh, I'm sorry about that, Mrs. Martin." Alli said, blushing, "Well, we better get going, Clare needs to be there in about ten minutes." Alli walked over to the front door, with Clare right at her heels. Before leaving, she turned to Jake and waved to him again, "Bye Jake!"

Jake shook himself out of his daze and looked at Alli, and after digesting her words for a couple of seconds, said, "Bye, Alli." But his eyes were still glued on Clare.

* * *

><p>Upon leaving the house, Alli huffed into the cold, wintery air, "You know, it makes me feel very accomplished when after I work my magic on you, it makes guys simply drool over you. However, it bugs me that even though you are obviously not a dating candidate for Jake, and even though I made my flirting so obvious, Jake Martin completely pushed me aside and wouldn't stop staring at you. I mean, I understand you look fantastic, but you're Jake Martin's <em>step sister.<em> I mean, the way he was looking at you, that was just wrong."

"Alli, I think you're making way too big of a deal of this. He's just probably never seen me in make-up before. And he had to get used to it. And he'll get used to it. And then you can flirt with him as much as you want."

Alli sighed, "I know… but just think of the look that would be on Jenna Middleton's face if she were to find out that the boy she had been crushing on since grade eight was going out with me. Ah, it would be gold!"

"So… you just want to go out with Jake… to make her jealous? No other reasons at all?"

"Well… I mean, Jake is pretty good looking…"

"But personality-wise?"

"I could care less."

"…That's what I thought."

By this time, they had walked over to the intersection of Clare's street and Main Street. Down Main Street would be The Dot a few shops down and continuing up Clare's street would lead Alli back to her house, where her family would be waiting for her. She was already pushing her seven thirty curfew.

Alli turned to Clare, "Well, good luck on your date! Text me with every single detail afterwards on how it went, okay? I want to know _everything _that happens!"

Clare laughed, "Fine, I will."

The two girls separated and Alli was soon out of sight, but it was only until Clare had begun walking down Main Street and grew closer to the little corner shop that she started to become nervous. It was after all, her first date, and she didn't know the first thing about being on a date. Heck, she didn't even know if Eli even _considered _this to be a date. For all she knew, he just wanted to go out for some hot chocolate...

...Oh who was she kidding? Eli wanted to go on a date with her.

Before Clare even had the option of turning around and going back to her house to hide in a little warm blanket cocoon for the rest of the night, she had reached The Dot, and there, leaning up against the window frame in front of the store, was Eli.

Eli hadn't taken the time to "dress up" or anything for their date - from underneath of his jacket, it looked like he was wearing what he had worn to school that day. Clare suddenly felt a bit self conscious about what she was wearing; was it too much? Would he think that the make-up and that the outfit were too much? Well, it was too late now to second guess Alli's choices.

Eli looked up from where he was standing and locked eyes with her. She saw a flicker of shock run through his eyes, but it was gone in half a second. He quickly re-gained his composture and smiled at Clare; but it was rather his more wicked smile that he had, the one that resembled a smirk more than anything.

"Hey," Eli said, grabbing the front door of The Dot for Clare and holding it open for her, "I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show up."

A flash of worry crossed Clare's features, "I wasn't that late, was I? I thought it was only a couple of minutes-"

"Relax," Eli said, laughing softly and putting a hand on Clare's shoulder, "You're perfect."

A burst of butterflies exploded in Clare's stomach. Had he really just called her perfect? The situation was timed too perfectly to be true. It was almost as if he had planned beforehand what to say. In fact, she felt that might have been true. That only increased the butterflies.

Eli lead Clare over to a table and went up to the counter to order for them. Clare looked around, and, as much as she probably should have realized beforehand, saw that the entire store was full of upperclassmen. At once, she felt completely felt out of place. She was too young to be going on dates; she was only in grade nine. Surely the rest of the students at The Dot were only going on some of their first dates. Maybe Clare and Eli weren't supposed to be going on a date. Afterall, she didn't see any other grade niners there at The Dot.

But then a thought occured to her: her older sister, Darcy, was going on dates as early as grade seven back when she lived in the house. Clare, being not nearly as naive as she used to be, understood that by the time she got to high school, she was doing much, much worse things than just going on dates... Clare knew better than to do such things like that.

As if to ease her thoughts, Eli came back with two steaming cups of hot chocolate - but, in travel cups?

"Are we not staying here?" Clare said, confusion tracing along the edge of her voice.

"I've got something else planned for this evening," Eli said, his smirk becoming more prominent on his face, "Come on!"

Eli grabbed Clare's hand and dragged her out the front door of the shop. He then took a hard left down the street's sidewalk with Clare in tow, just barely following behind, "Eli, where are we going?"

"You'll see; it's a surprise!"

At the corner of the shop, he took another hard left and she found that he had taken them to a side street, with the forest edging closer and closer to the road the farther they went down. The longer they went down the road, the closer the trees got, and the closer the trees got, the farther apart the houses on that street became, until, as Clare saw, the next house was near a mile down the road. Eli suddenly stopped, the air he was breathing out making the air around him turn white. He turned towards the street, looked both ways, and then ran across it, his one free hand still holding onto Clare's hand. At this point, the two of them were in front of the right side of trees that were caressing the side street.

And then Eli pulled her into the trees.

The trees were thick and the twigs were attacking the two of them, making their venture through the woods all the more slow. Eli kept whispering small assurances under his breath, like 'just a little bit farther' and 'it's right up ahead past the big rock'. Clare had no idea where Eli was taking her, but then, all confusion was whiped off of her face when he suddenly pulled her into a clearing.

It was nothing like Clare had ever seen before. The trees framed the oval shaped clearing like a picture frame. A glittering snow blanketed the ground and up above, Clare gasped as she saw the clearest winter sky she had ever seen. Each star was shinning beautifully in its' own unique way, and there was not a cloud to be seen in the sky. Every step, breath, even wink could be heard as they both stood there, staring in awe of the beauty.

They both stood together, their hot chocolates having being discarded onto the ground, and they both looked up towards the starts. Every star in the night sky was visable to them; there wasn't a single star that was too dim for them to see that night. Subconsciously, Clare rested her head on Eli's shoulder and breathed in, smiling as she found the hand that was holding onto hers find its' way around her waist. Together, they watched as each star twinkled in its' own delight. Clare slowly closed her eyes and whispered to herself:

"Starlight, Star Bright,  
>Of all of the stars that I see tonight;<br>I wish I may, I wish I might  
>have the wish I wish tonight."<p>

Eli chuckled to himself, "What is it that you are wishing for? At this very second."

There were many things that Clare wished for. Many of them were nightly things that she prayed for, like her family, and for her friendship with Eli. There was one thing in particular, however, that she found herself wishing for, and before she even realized it, she found the words coming out of her mouth.

"I wish that you would kiss me."

Eli rested his head on top of hers, and slowly, moved them both around so that way they were facing each other. Then, slowly, he put his hand underneath Clare's chin and lifted it up, looking into her eyes, as if asking for permission. She smiled lightly and nodded, and before she could even comprehend what was going to happen, Eli leaned forward slightly, and pressed his lips to hers.

It was like nothing Clare had ever dreamed of. Eli held her close as he kissed her, keeping his hand close to her chin, resting it on her cheek, his other hand still by her waist. And they both realized it at the same time. It was happening: nine years of friendship had turned into a passion that neither of them could deny anymore. This wasn't one of those "friendship gone relationship gone bad" scenerios that was seen in the movies. This was real.

As Eli slowly pulled away from her, he moved both of his hands to her waist. Clare smiled and moved hers to his shoulders,and they both grinned at each other like idiots for what felt like forever. In reality, it was about the time span of five seconds.

"Now," Eli said, catching her gaze again, "Can you guess what my wish is?" And Eli didn't even have to ask it.

Clare nodded once, and upon that confirmation, Eli leaned in once more to kiss his new girlfriend.

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter Nine-<p> 


	10. Age Fifteen

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Ten - Age Fifteen

* * *

><p><em>-Thursday-<em>

* * *

><p>The fact that the cast list hadn't already been posted was making Clare even more nervous than she was the night before trying to fall asleep. What she couldn't understand was how on such an important day such as that Thursday, their drama director had decided to be late for school. And thus Clare stood with the thirty or so other kids who were willing to miss class just to see the cast list.<p>

Clare rubbed at her temples. It was stressful situations like the one that Clare was in at the moment that egged on Clare's dreadful migraines, and getting a migraine was the last thing that she needed, especially before the school day had even started.

Being a sophomore at Degrassi High, it wasn't uncommon for sophomores or freshmen not to be casted in the fall show, but the director had gotten Clare's hopes up and had called her back up numerous times to read for the lead, Abigail. In fact, Clare was the only underclassmen who had been invited at all to callbacks. To say that she had gotten rude looks from some if the upper class men girls would have been an understatement. If it weren't for Jake, who read John's role so well, Clare probably wouldn't even stand a chance.

Jake wasn't normally an avid member of the drama club at their school, but after hearing that they were doing the show his class had read his sophomore year - and the show that he immediately loved - he just had to audition. And he knew exactly what role he would be auditioning for.

The pain in Clare's head intensified slightly, and the grimace on her face caught the attention of her brother, who strode over the couple of steps towards her and placed a hand on her back, worriedly.

"Are you going to be okay?" Jake asked, worry etched on his face.

"Yeah, I should be," Clare said, even as the room started to spin slightly and she had to grasp onto the wall for support.

Finally, right before the final bell was about to ring, their drama director busted her way around the corner, hips swaying fiercely as she tried to hurry herself over to the drama board as quickly as she could. In her hands laid the thin sheet of paper that was going to either make or break the students for the next three months.

"Alright kids, stand clear of the board, let me get this posted before you all huddle around it. Now move; quickly now, come on!" Their director was practically pushing kids aside as they all huddled around her and tried to get a sneak peak of the cast list. But being a drama director for forty years, she knew of all of the students' tricks and schemes and had the front side of the cast list covered with another sheet of paper.

Once she reached the board, she placed both the cast list and the sheet covering it over the board and stapled the top two corners. Then, like a magician pulling away a sheet to reveal her trick, she ripped off the top sheet and moved out of the way; the students swarmed around the cast list like a bunch of bees.

Clare inched her way up towards the board. She managed to get behind a short boy in front, and, narrowing her eyes to keep the least amount of light from entering, she managed to read the only two things that truly mattered to her:

John Proctor... Jake Martin  
>Abigail Williams...Clare Edwards<p>

She had gotten it! Clare had gotten the lead in their fall show over the countless other girls who had also wanted the exact same role. Her migraine was momentarily forgotten about as she screamed out "Yes!" for the rest of the world to hear.

She ran back towards Jake, and upon seeing the look on her face, not to mention hearing the cry of achievement only moments before, knew that she had gotten the role.

"We got it!" Clare practically squealed.

"Wait - you got Abigail and I got John?" Jake asked, his face lighting up with every word.

"Yes!"

Jake picked her up and spun her around in a hug, his emotions getting the best of him. The quickness of the spin, however, caused the intensity of Clare's migraine to come back at full force, and a cry escaped immediately from her mouth.

Upon hearing this, Jake put her down and tried to steady her.

"Clare, what's the matter?" It was a stupid question; he already knew what was going on. Upon not getting an answer, he said, "Oh, come on, Clare! Look at me! Talk to me!"

But it was no use. The room was still spinning for Clare and her vision was pounding with her headache; every pulse of her headache caused her vision to blur simultaneously.

Most of the students had left by this time, seeing as they had already seen the cast list and were going to be late for class as it was, but the ones who were still behind we're giving worried looks in Clare's direction.

The pain in Clare's head was one of the worst she had ever experienced. She vaguely felt Jake's hands on her shoulders, trying to steady her. She had her eyes closed in pain and had both hands grasping her head, as if her head would fall apart if she didn't hold it together. She could vaguely make out Jake's voice, but she couldn't figure out what he was saying; every word he said was muffled by the ringing in her ears.

"Could someone get a teacher?" Jake yelled, but their drama director was nowhere to be seen, and the few students who hadn't run off to their first period class after seeing the cast list looked clueless as to what to do. They were in the drama hallway, which was a wing all its own. The only rooms that were attached to the drama hallway were the makeup rooms, dressing rooms, and the auditorium.

Trying one last time, Jake desperately held on to Clare's shoulders and tried to get her to look at him, "Clare, come on, say something, anything!"

Having only being step siblings for such a short amount of time, Jake was rarely around to see Clare in the midst of one of her awful migraines. And even the times her migraines had happened, he wasn't the only one around to help her. Jake was scared, if he was quite honest with himself. Doing the only thing he knew he could possibly do, he held up Clare and leaned her weight against him, seeing as she was having difficulty standing as it was, and began walking her as quickly as he could to the nurse's office.

It was times like these that truly made Jake feel like something was going on with Clare that himself, his family, Eli, and the doctors hadn't figured out yet. He knew what had happened that one day before school - he had seen her on the ground, grasping her head, as a younger version of Eli looked entirely panicked, not sure of what to do with his best friend being hurt – but the doctor's from that day forward concluded that Clare would be able to live a normal life and that everything was perfectly fine with her head. But how in the world were getting massive migraines at the age of fifteen living a normal lifestyle? And how in the world did that mean that there was nothing wrong?

Sure, it could simply be coincidence, that coming along with growing up and her body changing and teenage hormones, that the migraines were only a side-effect of it all. But Jake knew that that would be an entirely convenient coincidence.

And Jake hated to see Clare in such pain. He had promised to her and himself that he would never let anything bad happen to her, and he couldn't even do anything about a migraine. What kind of an older brother was he?

As Jake neared the central offices where the nurse's office was located, Jake saw that the hallways were completely deserted. It emphasized how truly alone he and Clare were. Like how the few students that were left behind at the drama board, they wouldn't even help out. They simply walked away. They didn't care enough.

As Jake opened the door to the central offices, he got a surprised and shocked look from the front secretary, who simply gasped and pointed in the general direction of the nurse's office.

Jake was a junior; as if he didn't know where it was.

The nurse's office was just passed Principal Simpson's office, and there, sitting outside of his office, in one of the blue waiting chairs, looking entirely guilty for some misdemeanor that he probably committed, was Eli's notorious best friend, Adam Torres.

Of the two Torres brothers, Adam was the less good looking of the two, but the better gamer. Jake knew him from study sessions that he sometimes crashed at Clare's house (although he started to go less frequently to those because Clare's and Eli's study sessions started to turn into something else altogether). Upon seeing the critically in pain Clare being half-carried by Jake, eyes closed, face pale, a slight moan of discomfort with every breath, Adam immediately stood up and ran over to the two.

"Oh my God, Jake, what happened to Clare?" Adam whispered-yelled, grabbing her other side, and holding her up from the other side, proceeding to help Jake carry her the rest of the way to the nurse's office.

"She got a migraine: stress related, I'm sure. She was waiting for the cast list to go up with the rest of us and the director took her time in getting there. You know how bad her migraines get sometimes. This is the worst I've ever seen her. I don't know what to do. I can't even get her to speak to me, so I don't know how she's doing." Jake rambled on, his voice higher than usual.

"Jake, I think you need to calm down. You're obviously not used to Clare's attacks." Adam said.

"Attacks? These migraines are being referred to as attacks now?" Jake asked.

"Well, you know how it goes down with Clare. One minute, she doesn't have a headache, and the next, she's rendered completely useless. It's like a bomb, waiting to happen each time. One moment, the city is at peace, and the next, it's up in flames."

Jake couldn't respond to that.

The two turned into the nurse's office, and upon the nurse seeing Clare in her state, she immediately motioned Adam and Jake to move her over to one of the cushioned benches on the side of the room.

"What happened to her?" The nurse asked the two boys, suspicion tracing her features.

"She got another migraine," Adam said, "She's never had one like this that's been this bad during school."

"She's had them outside of school?" The nurse asked, this time turning to Jake, who was written on Clare's record as Clare's step brother.

"Yes, ma'am," Jake mumbled quietly, "She's been checked for why these things happen to her. The doctors say that nothing is wrong with her."

"I suppose so," The nurse trailed off, contemplating something, "You may as well take her home so she can rest; there's no point in her staying in school. You have your license, right, Jake?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jake said in the same tone.

"Then you should take her home and then report right back to school. I'll sign you a pass to give to the front office for both you and Clare." As she signed the slip of paper, Adam was sitting next to Clare, rubbing her temples, getting small little movements from her. She hadn't passed out, which was good. But her eyes were still shut closed away from the light, and her hands were forever holding onto her head.

Jake collected the small slip of paper, and Adam lifted Clare up onto her feet, earning a whine in protest as he did so. He handed her off to Jake like a father at a wedding, and then said, "I have to get back; I'm in big trouble for something, and if I'm not there when Simpson opens the door, I'm in even more trouble." Adam paused, "Have Clare text me when she wakes up. Just so I know that the storm is over."

Jake nodded to Adam as he headed out the door, back towards Simpson's office. He sighed as Clare started to lean into him, trying to keep the light out. He kept his arm protectively around her shoulder, as if trying to shield her away from everything bad in the world.

After all, he was the older brother. And that was what he was supposed to do.

* * *

><p>The car ride back to their house was quiet, to say the least. Jake had never felt anymore happy to live only a couple minutes away from the school. He wished that his truck had a backseat so that way Clare could lie down, but alas, he didn't, and she had to sit in the passenger's seat, her migraine, he could only imagine, getting progressively worse. Upon thinking of this idea, his foot found its way in inch lower onto the gas pedal.<p>

Jake had no doubt that once Adam was out of the principal's office, that he was going to text Eli and tell him everything that happened. And he had no doubt that Adam would exaggerate the details. He had no doubt that once Eli found out what happened, he would hunt down Jake in the school and demand to know what happened, and he had no doubt that he would be giving Eli a ride back to their house after school was dismissed.

Jake pulled into his front driveway, and, as quickly as he could, ran over to the other side to help Clare get out of the car. Upon opening the car door, he saw Clare's eyes were closed, as was what she was doing before, but this time, her hands had fallen limp beside her face sometime during the car ride, and only the slight wrinkle of pain was present on her forehead.

At least she's asleep now. Jake thought, picking her up in his arms and kicking the car door closed with his foot.

He opened the front door and immediately noticed that the television was on in the family room, "Hello?" Jake called warily into the house.

"Hey Jake!" He heard his father say from the living room. He must not have had a contract that day, "What are you doing home from school? It's only nine o'clock right now!"

Jake went around the corner and saw his dad sitting lazily on the couch, smelling of body odor. Jake gave a feeble smile as to why Clare was resting in his arms, and the moment that Glen saw Clare, his expression immediately changed, "What happened to her?"

Jake was taken slightly aback at the way that his father said that, but let it slide, "She had a migraine before school started today. It escalated, and I got permission from the school nurse to take her home."

His father scoffed, "The nurse had no right to give you such permission. She should have called me and asked me whether or not she could come home."

Jake frowned, "She's hurting. I think that's enough reason to give permission to bring her home."

"I'd doubt that." His father said, turning his eyes back to the T.V.

Jake sighed, "You know, I can see that you're in a bad mood, so there's no reason to argue with you right now. I'm taking her upstairs so that way she can rest, and then I've gotta head back to school."

"At least one of you is trying to get an education." His father said under his breath. Jake ignored it.

Jake took her upstairs to her room, and placed her under her covers, taking note of how she instinctively curled into a fetal position the moment she hit the covers. He sighed and covered her with her blanket, looking around momentarily for a paper and a pencil. Finding one, he wrote a quick note down for Clare.

_Call me if you need anything. See you after school. – Jake_

* * *

><p>The light shined through her bedroom window as Clare finally woke up, rubbing her eyes and feeling particularly numb. She looked to the side of her bed, and on her nightstand, her alarm clock said that it was noon.<p>

_Thank God it's Saturday… hold on –_

Saturday? No, it was Thursday. Why wasn't she at school? She couldn't imagine that no one in her house had bothered to wake her up. She couldn't miss school that day; the cast list was going up! As quickly as she could, she swung her legs over her bed, and immediately felt her head pound slightly. Everything came back to her in a blur: her headache, the cast list, Abigail Williams, Jake as John Proctor, hugging, massive migraine… Adam? Then… nothing.

She must have ended up back at the house at some point. Probably was taken home by someone… but who –

She then saw a small slip of paper right beside her nightstand:

_Call me if you need anything. See you after school. – Jake_

That made sense. Jake was with her when her migraine started. Surely he must have taken her home then. But then why could she barely remember what had happened?

Must have passed out at some point, Clare concluded, and it made sense too. It wouldn't have been the first time that she had passed out from one of her awful headaches.

Clare saw her phone light up on her dresser across the room. She hadn't taken it to school that day, so it was where she had left it last night before she went to bed. Gingerly, she picked herself up from off the bed and walked over to her white dresser. There, her pink cell phone indicated that she had six new text messages: one from Jake, one from Adam, and four from Eli. She opened Jake's text first:

_Just reiterating what I left in my note: call me if you need anything._

Protective brother as always, wasn't he? She then opened the text message that she had from Adam:

_Hey, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. You looked like you were really in pain today, and I wanted to make sure that everything turned out alright. Text me back when you get this message. Also, I told Eli today in second period what had happened, and he was freaking out. Talk of skipping school and such to make sure you were okay. Jake brought him back to his senses, but he's coming by your house after school just to make sure you're okay… I probably should have waited until seventh period study hall to tell him…_

Respecting his wish to be texted back, Clare sent him a quick text stating that she was alright and that she only had a slight pound in her head. She then opened the first of four texts from Eli, the first one having been sent at 9:10:

_Clare, are you okay? Adam just told me what happened. Please text me back._

The next text was sent about twenty minutes later:

_Clare, please text me back. I'm terrified out of my mind._

The next text was sent nearly ten minutes after that:

_Clare, seriously, if you're not okay, I'm about to leave the school. I don't know what else to do. I can't stand the thought of you hurting while I can't be there to help stop it._

The last text was sent about an hour after the third text, and was significantly calmer than the rest.

_I just talked to Jake, he assured me that you're fine, and that you were awake when he left the house, and that your phone was dead. I'll be over after school._

Clare giggled at the last text. Unless Clare was awake when Jake left and she simply didn't remember it, then Jake had definitely lied to Eli and said what he needed to say to him just to make sure that he wouldn't do anything drastic. She opened a new text and typed out a reassuring message to Eli.

_Eli, I'm okay, I promise. Yeah, my phone's been dead for a while, I just charged it, and I fell asleep right as Jake left and I just woke up now. See you after school :)_

With that, Clare set down her phone on her dresser and took the journey back to her bed. It was noon, as she had checked before, and she had a good three hours to sleep off the minor pounding of her headache that was still there. Gingerly, she picked up the sheets and pressed them to her chin, inviting sleep to come and take her. Peace had never come as quickly as it did then. Within seconds, she was fast asleep.

* * *

><p>Slightly conscious, she felt a calloused had stroking the side of her jawline, and then up to her eyebrows, and then back down again. Instinctively, she leaned into that touch, knowing that touch better than she knew herself. She heard a soft laugh, and then felt the bed move slightly as the person laid right next to her, still stroking the side of her face. Smiling slightly, she said the simplest word with the most meaning behind it for any situation, "Hi."<p>

"Hello there, Sleeping Beauty. Now that I've woken you up, do I get my kiss?" The familiar voice playfully asked, leaning in slightly enough so Clare could feel their breath on her chin.

Clare playfully groaned and shook her head while turning over to face the wall, all the while, the smile becoming bigger on her face.

"No?" The voice responded, moving closer and wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, leaning up to whisper next to her ear, "Because it has always been my dream to kiss the leading actress in a production of _The Crucible, _and I just so happen so see a candidate right in front of me."

Clare giggled, remembering her giddiness from when she saw the cast list, "I probably have morning breath; I doubt you'd be interested."

"I really don't care if you have morning breath; I think I'm interested."

Clare giggled again and rolled over in Eli's arms, making it so that way they were both facing each other. The first thing that Clare noticed when she opened her eyes and saw Eli's appearance, she noticed that he looked a little worse for wear. His eyes weren't necessarily bloodshot, but there was some red along the outside of his eyes, indicating stress. Taking note of this, Clare placed her hands on the back of his neck. Smiling slightly, she placed a small, sweet kiss on his lips, and her stomach did a backflip when he slowly moved to hover over her, still kissing her sweetly and gently.

This was one of the things that Clare adored about her relationship with Eli. Even though their relationship had only been going on for nearly a year, Clare felt like she had been with him for much longer, which in a way, was true, since they knew each other since they were six. She loved that he took the relationship slowly for her. She knew that Jake had quite a few relationships with girls, and he took it quite far with some of those girls, but Eli was different. He didn't want a quick relationship with Clare; rather, he wanted a steady, _loving _relationship with her. So rather than listen to his hormonal teenage instincts, he took things slowly with Clare. And, if he were truly honest with himself, he wouldn't want to have it any other way.

Which is why slowly over time, Clare allowed for their relationship to get deeper and deeper. In the first month, it was only small little kisses, holding hands, and a lot of blushing towards each other. By their six month anniversary in the summer time, they had been kissing in Eli's backyard; over a blanket and under the stars. By eight months, they had daily study sessions, which eventually and ultimately turned into kissing sessions, and being at nine months into their relationship, Clare let Eli take the next step, as they made out on her bed, although it wasn't the rough making out like they saw in the movies. It was just sweet and slow, the way each of them liked it.

Slowly, they emerged from their kiss, and Eli laid himself beside Clare, staring at her beautiful face and moving her hair behind her ear. She giggled and held his other hand, loving the way he held onto it like he could lose her forever in a heartbeat.

Moving back to his slightly bloodshot eyes, Clare took that as a conversation starter, "Were you okay today? Your eyes look a little red."

Eli sighed and rested his forehead against her own, squeezing his eyes shut, "I should be asking you the same question. You know, it's not every day that a guy goes to school and finds out that his girlfriend nearly passed out earlier that day due to a _migraine, _and that he can't do anything about it until he gets _home _from school at _three o'clock. _Do you know how much that just _messes _with my head? That I can't do anything about it until _six hours later?_"

Clare squeezed his hand reassuringly, "But I'm okay now; there's nothing to worry about."

Eli opened his eyes and looked into Clare's, his eyes brimming with tears, "But it's happened before, and it'll happen again. And it just keeps getting worse and worse. I… I don't want to lose you, Clare."

Clare giggled a bit, thinking he was being a bit overdramatic with that last line, but then realized that he was indeed serious. She sighed, and whipping away a couple of stray tears, said, "These are just headaches; there's nothing to worry about."

Eli squeezed his eyes closed, holding onto her hand for dear life and his lips forming into a straight line, before saying, "…I don't think that these are just headaches, Clare… I've been doing some research lately, and passing out from headaches isn't exactly normal."

A worried feeling settled in the pit of Clare's stomach, "Eli, what are you-"

"Just promise me you'll get this checked out." Eli said, looking up at her, a few stray tears falling from his eyes, "Just promise me that."

Clare sighed, and knowing that it would give him and herself some peace of mind, she said, "I promise."

* * *

><p><em>-Saturday-<em>

* * *

><p>After quite a few tests and procedures, the doctors came up with a diagnostic. Yes, Clare was getting migraines; the doctors found out. She wasn't just imagining it or making it up; phenomenal job on the doctors' part for figuring that out. The doctors came to the conclusion that her migraines were stress and hormone related. They sent her home with a prescription to get filled for migraine medicine, but they also gave her an unwritten prescription to take some stress out of her life; to take some easier classes, and to lighten up on the extracurricular activities.<p>

The day that pigs flew, she would.

It undoubtedly eased Eli's mind to know that there wasn't anything bad going on inside her head. When Clare got home from the hospital, she immediately went over to Eli's house to tell him of the good news. Upon hearing it, Eli picked her up and swung her around in a hug, relieved to know that his girlfriend and best friend was going to be okay.

That night, Clare spent the night at Eli's house, and they spent the majority of the night lying on a blanket outside, looking at the stars: a favorite pastime of the two. The stars were easier to see than in the summer time, because of all of the leaves that had already fallen that season. They both wore slightly heavy fall jackets, and Eli kept his arms around Clare, protecting her against any cold, and protecting her again anything else. They both stared at the stars, embracing life.

Life is something that should never be taken for granted. Even though Clare's situation turned out not to be life threatening, it scared Eli to the bone knowing that there could have been something wrong with Clare that only death could fix. He was a glass half empty kind of guy, and looked at things like a worst case scenario. But knowing that he had Clare for the moment, and that nothing could take her away from him, it eased his mind.

Holding Clare in his arms, he looked down and saw that her eyes were closed. When he nudged her, she didn't stir; her heavy and rhythmic breathing told Eli that she was asleep.

She fell asleep in his arms.

Looking up at the stars, Eli closed his eyes too, a small smile forming on his lips, savoring the moment of peace. Sighing, he whispered:

"Starlight, Star Bright,  
>Out of all the stars that I see tonight;<br>I wish I may, I wish I might,  
>Have the wish I wish tonight."<p>

He wished for the quiet, peaceful moments with Clare. How he could hold her and never have to let her go. He didn't wish for much else, because nearly all of his wishes had come true. That being said, Eli looked up at the stars and whispered, "I wish I could have the rest of my life with Clare."

At age fifteen, it might seem naïve for a teenager to say that he wants forever with his girlfriend. But Eli Goldsworthy was different. He had already had nine magical years with Clare. He couldn't imagine his life without her. He prayed for the day in years to come that he could ask her to spend the rest of their lives together.

As gently as he could, Eli scooped Clare up in his arms, her head instinctively resting against his chest. With ease, he carried her upstairs to his room and laid her down under the covers. Slowly and gingerly, he moved in next to her, holding her still and falling fast asleep with Clare; nothing more, nothing less.

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter Ten-<p> 


	11. Age Sixteen

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Eleven: Age Sixteen

* * *

><p><em>-Wednesday-<em>

* * *

><p>Jake would have failed grade twelve had he not received any academic help from Clare. Clare was more than happy to give any help to anyone who asked for it and needed it, but if Clare was completely honest with herself, it seemed like Jake was far beyond help. And it didn't help that Jake wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the work he was doing. It was always easier to tutor someone who actually <em>wanted <em>to be tutored. Jake was, to put it lightly, very distracted when it came to world literature. Clare, who was currently enrolled in advanced level world literature, as a grade eleven, nonetheless, could breeze through academic world literature if she truly wanted to. In fact, the books that academic world literature was going over, those were the books that Clare had been assigned for summer reading. And it was March. And with those books that Clare all but devoured over the summer, Jake just seemed to be barely hanging on.

"Jake, listen to me, and please, try to answer this question," Clare was a smidgen exasperated, especially when Jake would go off into his own little world and start air guitaring, "When Rochester and Jane leave the garden and afterwards a thunderstorm presumes and slices the orange tree in half, what does that foreshadow about their relationship?"

"It, um-" Jake struggled to make his words sound interested and intelligent, "foreshadows that Jane or Rochester will be… hit by a strike of lightning… which will promptly end their relationship."

Clare sighed, "You're not even remotely close."

"Then tell me, please, because I obviously don't know how in the world that foreshadows their relationship!" Jake said, throwing his hands up in the air and rubbing his temples, "You're the smart one, why can't you just tell me what happens?"

"Because me telling you what happens in the book will not create good analytical readers," Clare said, and reached for her copy of _Jane Eyre_, "Why not this time you actually _read the book_, and then when you're finished reading it, you can come back to me and we can have many _analytical _discussions on the book."

"Clare, you know that I can't analyze a book as well as you," Jake said.

"Well, it would be a start, wouldn't it? You wouldn't have to analyze a book as well as me, but at least you would know enough to discuss one of the most memorable points in the entire novel." Clare retorted back, closing her binder and making a move to get up and leave.

"Clare wait!" she felt a hand grab her wrist and pull her back down, "I'm sorry, really, I truly am. But if I don't get your help on these books, I'm going to fail world literature, and it's a required class and it's not offered in summer school. Please, Clare, you're my only hope at passing this class. Everyone else in the school is either as dumb as me or exasperated with me and won't help."

Clare sighed, "You're not dumb… you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer either, however, you're not dumb. You're just very easily distracted. World literature was not designed to be an easy blow off class. In case you never noticed, world literature is a grade twelve only course, with the exception of a few grade elevens," Clare smirked a tad, "The English teachers did not create the course with the intentions of giving the students an easy A. They created the curriculum with the idea of making students work hard even just to earn a B. This class isn't Woodshops or Art 101. It's a required class for graduation, and they want for their graduates to be good, analytical readers and writers. Even if you know that you're never going to use any of this information that you've learned in this class ever again, you still have to learn it. And learn it well. At least you came to me now instead of two weeks before you graduate. Now enough of this book. I want you to compare _Lord of The Flies_ with a childhood story that I know you know very well. And if you don't, well then shame on you. J.M. Barrie would be extremely disappointed if he were still alive now."

"Who's he?"

Clare deadpanned, "Have you _never _in your _life _watched a Disney movie?"

"Well, yeah, I have. I used to watch them all the time when I was a kid." Jake responded.

"Then you should know who J.M. Barrie is."

"Well, I don't, so," Jake flashed a small grin, "You should tell me who he is."

Clare huffed out a puff of air very Kristen Stewart-esque and said, "He's the man who wrote the classic tale of _Peter Pan!"_

"Oh okay!" Jake said, "But I've never read the book of _Peter Pan. _I've only seen the Disney movie."

"Doesn't matter. All you would have need to do to make this comparison is to have read _Lord of The Flies, _which I know that you must have read, considering that all other discussions that we have had on the book you've been able to participate in."

"Well, what can I say? It was easily one of the better books that we read this year." Jake shrugged.

"And one of the easiest." Clare added, "The book was written not too long ago, whereas some of the books that you read this year dated back to just a couple hundred years after Christ's death."

Jake gave a condescending smirk, "You don't honestly still believe all that crap about Christ, do you?"

Clare gave him a glare meant to kill, "Don't even start with me on that subject. Now, what are some of the biggest comparisons that you can make between the boys stranded on the island in _Lord of The Flies _and the Lost Boys from _Peter Pan?_"

Jake was quick to answer, "Well, both the Lost Boys and the boys stranded on the island had lost their parents one way or another, and both groups of boys gave into a more savage way of life, because there wasn't any order, and there wasn't any parents around to control the order."

"Good, good," Clare smiled a bit, "And both groups of boys had their own unanimous leader, right?"

"Yeah, um, in _Peter Pan, _well, Peter was their leader, and in _Lord of The Flies_, Ralph is appointed as their leader."

"Yeah, and this is where a lot of the differences obviously come into play, where J.M. Barrie wrote the book with the intent on it being a children's book, as opposed to a controversial book, and so he never once mentioned any of the lost boys killing or brutally hurting one another. In fact, another difference is that the savage boys in _Lord of The Flies _is set as the main conflict, whereas the main conflict in _Peter Pan _is… well, I suppose that there are a few conflicts in _Peter Pan _and each one could be argued well as being the main conflict in the novel… Captain Hook making Wendy walk the plank… Wendy's inner conflict with being a friend when Peter wants for her to be a mother… the actual "getting home" part of the story… Mr. Darling having trouble tying his tie…" Clare said the last part with a smile.

Jake laughed, "So Peter and Wendy never had some sort of… romantic relationship?"

"They couldn't have, "Clare said immediately, "Peter was still a young boy, and thus wouldn't have obtained any serious feeling towards a girl. That and he specifically saw Wendy as his long needed mother figure. Sure, Wendy was all enwrapped with the ideas of growing up and falling in love and being a mother, but arguably speaking, she was still a little girl too, being forced too early to grow up. If they had been older, then it's quite possible that something romantic could have sparked between them, however, J.M. Barrie probably would not have wanted to write a love story with those characters, so the idea of the two of them being romantically involved with one another is extremely unlikely."

"Well," Jake moved a little closer to Clare, to the point that their knees were touching, "What if they had been older? Like sixteen or seventeen?"

Clare had enough common sense to know that Jake wasn't talking about Peter and Wendy anymore, but she felt frozen in her spot, not knowing what to do. And Jake's face was coming closer and closer to her own.

"What if they had been older, more mature… and what if they had both wanted it? And what if the opportunity had arrived and neither of them could resist?" At this point, Jake's lips were a mere inch away from Clare's own, and Jake took no more hesitation as he placed his one hand at Clare's waist and wrapped his free hand around Clare's neck, making escape impossible and pulling her in the last inch.

Clare was frozen on the spot, her eyes wide open, as she finally comprehended exactly what was going on. Jake took his chance and kissed her. And it wasn't just a small kiss either. All the emotions that Jake had the last few years towards Clare were poured out into that kiss, and Clare felt Jake's lips moving against her own, his tongue asking for entrance but Clare being unwilling to give it, but she wasn't pulling away either. She couldn't. Her unwillingness to give into the kiss had only made Jake strengthen his grip on her waist and her neck, bringing them closer together. Jake was leaning over Clare as she was sitting on her chair, and as Jake's hips met Clare's, he slowly increased the pressure and started grinding his hips into Clare's.

It was as though all lights turned on, and Clare finally had control of herself again. Jake had gone farther with Clare in five minutes than Eli had gone with Clare in two years, and she wasn't about to have that. She gained control of her arms, which had just been laying limp at her side throughout the entire ordeal and pushed against Jake's chest, but it only made Jake push harder against her. She moaned involuntarily and felt the tears begin to cascade freely down her face.

She pushed against his chest one more, and instead of him grinding against her harder, he picked her up from her chair, ending the kiss effectively, and started carrying her over to the living room. They had been studying in the kitchen, and the living room was only a few mere steps away. A sob escaped her chest as she tried to escape, but to no avail. Jake laid her down on the couch in the living room and pinned her down with his body.

She tried squirming out one last time, "Jake, please, stop. You know this is wrong. I have a _boyfriend!_ You're my _brother! _Please, just stop doing this!"

She tried pushing him away with all of her might, but he grabbed her arms that were pushing against his chest and pinned them up above her head, "We're not even related, so what does it matter? You know as well as I do that there's been an undeniable attraction between us and now we can both have our own way. We can both become _one."_ And he leaned down and kissed her harder than ever before.

With her arms pinned above her head, and her body being pinned by his weight, Jake had her entirely at his mercy. Any amount of moving on her part would only be met with even more weight pressed upon her. He kissed her lips ferociously, having forced his own entry by this point, and seemed to favor sucking on her bottom lip whenever the chance was given. As he was grinding his hips against hers, one thrust seemed to be ultimately pleasing and he found himself pausing as he groaned out of pleasure, taking Clare's arms and pinning them between their chests as Jake moved to start unbuttoning her jeans. Terror immediately seized Clare and she started thrashing underneath Jake, doing anything in her power to get away from what he was about to do.

During this entire ordeal, both teenagers failed to hear the sounds of a door being unlocked, and then swung open, the entire scene being visible to the person standing at the door.

"What… the _hell _is going on in here?" To Clare's relief, it wasn't Eli. But unfortunately for Clare, it wasn't Eli.

Glen Martin, Clare's step-father and Jake's father stood at the door, absolutely fuming with disgust and anger. He slammed the front door shut, making the books on the nearby bookshelf wobble and fall over. Jake immediately got off of Clare and was standing next to the couch within seconds, Clare still in shock. As she started to lift herself up, she started hearing footsteps stomping towards her, and as she stood on her feet, she felt a stinging sensation across her left cheek and fell back against the couch, her head hitting the wall moderately.

"You _slut_! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Clare, finding her voice, stuttered, "I didn't do anything w-wrong! We were just studying and-"

"Oh like you weren't doing anything wrong! What the hell would you have called that then? Oh, I knew that you were never good even from the start! How dare you try and ruin this family, one that myself and your mother have worked so hard to achieve! How dare you try and call yourself a Christian! What have you got to say to yourself?" Glen yelled, infuriated.

"I didn't do any of this!" Clare yelled, finding her courage, "I would never try to cause any of this! Jake was the one who started it all-"

"Stop trying to cover for your own actions and _get out of my house!" _Glen yelled, "_Now!"_

Out of complete fear and abandonment, Clare ran out the front door, shoving past Jake on the way out, who was just standing there in disbelief. Not wanting to spend any more time at the house trying to grab her bike, she took off down the sidewalk, heading for nowhere and anywhere. She just wanted to run away, run away to some fictional place where nothing bad could happen to her ever again. She vaguely noticed that her jeans were starting to fall down her hips, and she moved to button them, and just barely managed to do so while still running.

Clare had never been much of a runner, but she soon learned to be as she ran for what felt like an eternity. The tears were still free falling down her cheeks and they blurred her vision a little bit, but she only needed to focus on the sidewalk in front of her. On the side of her vision, she saw a few cars passing by, but paid no mind to them. She still paid no mind when she heard a car halt abruptly to a stop and a car door open and slam, footsteps matching her sprinting ones behind her, her name being called; she kept running as fast as she could. The footsteps increased in speed and the footfalls increased in sound, and in one last attempt, a pair of arms made their way around her waist, effectively slowing her down and stopping her.

There was a ringing in her ears that she could not ignore, and it wasn't until she finally stopped moving altogether that she could hear past the ringing and noticed that her head was held against a sturdy chest, and that the person was saying her name soothingly, rubbing the back of her head and saying sweet nothings between her name. She was hyperventilating and sobbing uncontrollably and she felt her knees go out beneath her, but the person just went down with her, holding her and whispering to her. It didn't take her long to figure out that the person was Eli; she could tell by the way he smelled and the way he held her and the way she felt safe while in his arms.

Sitting on the grass next to the sidewalk reduced the ringing in her ears, and she gripped his upper arm and wailed his name.

"Shh, Clare, it's alright, I'm here… shh… everything's going to be alright…"

"Eli…" Clare said between sobs, "Eli… it was so awful… so bad… everything's so messed up."

Eli sighed, "Oh Clare, what happened?"

_What happened… _thinking back on it only made Clare cry harder as she remembered every detail with perfect pixilation. Eli gripped her upper arms and lifted her up as he said, "Come on, let's get you home."

"No." Clare immediately said, shrugging out of his grip with an intensity she never knew she possessed.

The fear in her eyes was evident, and Eli backed down, "Alright, well then let me take you back to my house. Will you tell me what happened though?"

Clare shook her head no and Eli sighed, "Okay, well, let me take you back to my house then, and will you tell me later what happened?"

Clare nodded yes and leaned in towards his touch. He wrapped his arms around her protectively, shielding her from the outside world. He led her up towards his hearse, which was parked on the side of the street about one hundred meters away from them. He opened the car door for her and she slid in weakly, leaning back against the door once it had shut, and Eli went over to the driver's side and sat behind the wheel. Clare instinctively scooted over and leaned against his shoulder, closing her eyes against the outside world. Eli drove off, driving the few streets towards his house, knowing that whatever it was that made Clare so incredibly upset could not have been something that would have happened in a children's book.

* * *

><p>Cece Goldsworthy sat in the living room of her house, reading the book entitled <em>How to Rock<em>, when the front door opened. She knew exactly who it was before she even looked behind her. Without moving her eyes from the book, she called out, "How was school, Eli?"

But this time, however, Cece didn't recieve the usual, "Good," "Fine," or even the occasional grunt that usually indicated that Eli simply wasn't in the mood to talk. Instead, she was met with the sounds of crying, and another voice shushing and reassuring. Realizing immediately that something was, indeed, different and altogether wrong, Cece slammed shut the covers of her book without even marking the page and threw it on the couch, all the while pushing off of the couch and towards the source of the crying.

The scene was something out of a movie. Eli stood with his one arm around Clare's shoulders, with his mouth pressed close to her ear, lips moving but words inaudable unless you were standing right there. Clare had her head buried into Eli's shoulder, hicupping and crying moderately. Eli managed to keep standing by Clare even as he kicked the front door shut with his leg. Cece raced towards the two with her arms already outstretched towards Clare and collected her from Eli, letting Clare cry into her shoulder as she ruffled her curls. She looked towards Eli and found a sort of helplessness in his eyes as he was completely shut out from what had made Clare so upset. Cece could tell that what ever had happened wasn't the sort of innocent fight with a friend or simple heartbreak. This was something much deeper.

Without another word, Cece handed Clare back to Eli and sighed, walking out of the room and into the kitchen, signaling her permission to give them privacy. She heard from the kitchen the sounds of footsteps slowly climbing up the stairs, and knew Eli was going to have Clare sleep, for even she knew, being a mother, that a child being extremely upset is soon followed by exhaustion. And that's just what Clare was. A child. And if Cece truly admitted it to herself, she believed that everyone deep down was a child, because every person has their moments where they need to be nurtured and loved.

Cece, in a way, felt like she was Clare's mother sometimes as well as Eli's. She had known Clare for ten long amazing years, and she knew that child like she _was _her own. And without another thought, Cece knew what she was going to do.

Swiftly and efficently, in a way that only an experienced mother could do, Cece worked her way around the kitchen, grabbing bowls, whisks, pre-heating the oven, and grabbing the nessesary ingredients. If there was one thing that she knew would cheer Clare Edwards up, besides Eli, then it would be her famous chocolate chip cookies. The same recipe as the ones little Clara Edwards had the first time they met.

* * *

><p>Eli laid on his bed with both arms securely wrapped around a sleeping Clare. It had taken nearly twenty minutes for Eli to get Clare to calm down, and from then on, it only took seconds for Clare to fall asleep. Eli figured out that trying to get Clare to open up about what happened would not be very successful amongst the hicupping and the sobbing. Eli also knew that Clare wouldn't want to talk until later; whatever having happened to her being too fresh, too soon to talk about.<p>

It just made it all the more harder for Eli to keep his cool.

He didn't believe for one second that what had happened had anything to do with Alli or one of Clare's friends. She would have told him if it were something like that. No, this was something bad; something that she was afraid to talk about to _him:_ her best friend. He would ask about it again when she woke up, but he felt his hands clench and unclench unconsciously at the idea of something making Clare cry like that.

Distrupting his thought process was a knock on his bedroom door, and without waiting for him to say "come in" (he wouldn't have said it regardless of the circumstances), he found his mother walking in with a plate of cookies, wearing a sad smile with a sad facade. She placed them on his nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed, next to Eli and Clare's forms.

Cece sighed before speaking, "I'm not going to ask about what happened-"

"She hasn't told me yet," Eli said flatly, "She fell asleep before I could have asked her. And even if she were awake, I wouldn't have asked her until she was ready."

Cece gave a small smile, "I know baby boy, I know..." Cece trailed off, studying the girl's face lightly, "You really do love her, don't you?"

Eli froze slightly. She was his best friend, but they had never told each other that they loved each other. Though, if he was completely honest with himself, "Yeah, mom... I love her."

The words left his lips and left a slight tingling on them. Everything became real, then. Not that it wasn't real before, but the moment that the three words left his lips, he knew they were true. He knew that he loved her, and he would do anything for her.

Cece smiled and ruffled his hair like he was a little boy, and stood up to leave, "I'll leave the cookies here for when she wakes up. Tell her that she can stay over here as long as she likes."

With that, Cece gathered herself and left the room, closing the door lightly behind her. Upon impact, Eli looked down at the girl that he was cradling in his arms; the girl that he was _blessed _with cradling in his arms. The girl in his arms that he loved. He loved her.

He loved her.

* * *

><p>Clare was warm. As she woke up from her sleep, she found two strong arms holding her, <em>protecting <em>her, and burrowed deeper into the arms. She felt the two arms shift as she stirred, and slowly opened her eyes to meet very tired looking eyes. She smiled at the face, before realizing and remembering the events that led her to where she was now.

The homework. _The Lord of The Flies. Peter Pan. _Peter and Wendy. Romance. Advancement. Lips where they shouldn't have been. Hands where they shouldn't have been. A foreign body over hers. Traitorous, almost. Almost, but no.

She had almost been raped by Jake Martin.

Her own brother.

And the tears started free falling again.

She felt calloused hands whiping away the tears once more, holding her even closer, leaving no room for air. She grabbed at the material on the back of his t-shirt, sobbing into Eli's chest as he rubbed circles into her back, shushing her and whispering to her all over again. She couldn't keep the secret between the two of them any longer.

She needed to tell him. He deserved to know.

Slowly, she raised her head and left it at eye level with Eli. She sobbed once before beginning, "Something bad happened yesterday-"

Eli cut her off, "You don't have to tell me if you don't-"

"No." Clare said, whiping at her cheeks, "I want to... I need to." She breathed heavily, wondering where even to start, until she figured it best to start at the very beginning.

She shuddered before beginning, "Yesterday, I was helping Jake study for his finals. He's nearly failing every subject, you know, but he's doing the worst in world literature, so I'm helping him most with that. We were studying, and... oh God..." Clare gulped, suspending in the tears, "I-I don't even know how it happened. How it started. I can't even remember that far. But one moment we were talking about Peter and Wendy... and the next..." Clare closed her eyes, trying to hold in the tears. She spoke without opening her eyes, afraid of his reaction, "...he kissed me."

Clare felt Eli freeze around herand she slowly opened her eyes. His eyes were open, furious even, and his eyebrows were furrowed slightly. She could see in his eyes things being pieced together. He knew that she wouldn't have been crying so hard had it only been a kiss. His next sentence confirmed that.

"That's not everything... is it."

Clare, biting her bottom lip, shook her head no, "He kept kissing me, and held me down so I couldn't move... Eli, he told me that he was going to have sex with me, and I was so scared, and I didn't know what to do, and I kept telling him to stop but he wouldn't stop and..." Clare was sobbing and hyperventilating by this point, but she continued, knowing that if she stopped talking about it that she wouldn't be able to talk about it again, "...and right as he was... was unbuttoning my jeans, his father came in, and he started yelling at me and cursing at me, saying that it was my fault when _it wasn't my fault! I didn't do anything to deserve this!" _Clare was shrieking by this point, sobbing uncontrolably. Eli held her in a tight embrace, mixed emotions running through him. He was frozen on the spot until he heard the words whispered into his ear, "He was so close to raping me. I can't go back there. I can't go back. I can't..."

Eli was on his feet before Clare could even finish her sentence. He heard his name being questioned lightly as he slammed open his bedroom door and advanced down the stairs, three at a time. He was only about half conscious of his intentions as he seemed to move in a way that he could not control, but he knew as he grabbed the keys for his hearse from the hallway that he was going over to Clare's house to beat the shit out of Jake.

With the anger that was coursing through Eli's body, Jake would be lucky to make it out conscious.

He heard his name being called out again, louder this time, sobs between the sentences, and found himself being pulled around by an upset Clare, who resorted to clinging to his t-shirt in an effort to make him stop.

"Eli, please, stop!" Clare sobbed, holding onto him, "Please... just, stay with me. For right now. Please. Everything's better right now, just stay with me until I feel better." _And until you calm down, considerably, _but she didn't add that.

"Do... do you have any place to stay until things calm down at home? Can you stay at Alli's or... or, oh I don't know. How are you going to tell your mom about this?" Eli stammered, attempting to control his breathing.

"I can stay at Alli's tonight, don't worry. And... I'll figure out something with my mom. I can't imagine that she'd believe that _I _started kissing Jake, could she? I mean, come on," Clare said, a small smile lingering on her face, "I'm Saint Clare!"

A small smile appeared on Eli's face as he swooped her up in a hug, "I know... you're my angel."

* * *

><p><em>-Monday-<em>

* * *

><p>The next few weeks were some of the most rocky and upsetting weeks of Clare's life. As predicted, Clare's mom didn't believe one word that Glen or Jake said and alot of fighting had ensued at the house.<p>

Needless to say, Glen and Jake had moved out within days of the incident; Clare's mom was already filing the divorce papers.

And poof; it was like that. How quickly a family could turn from one happy family to a divided household. How quickly things could change... but Clare's mom had no regrets. Although she believed she loved Glen, the desision was simple come that day that he tried to tell her that her daughter was a whore and a home wreaker.

Though Glen and Jake were moved out and exiled from the family, Jake still attended Degrassi to finish his high school diploma. As for Clare, she made it a point to avoid him in the hallways and to stay as far away from him as she possibly could. As for Eli, he made it a point to confront Jake before the school year ended.

And he did. It was the end of the school day at Degrassi High School, and the seniors would be done with their finals come Tuesday. Eli was leaning up against his locker, keeping an eye out for a tall male with an overly egotistical personality. You could have spotted it from a mile away. Jake walked alone down the hallway, a strange change to his usual packs of buddies surrounding him in the hallways.

Jake passed him, and Eli knew that it was all or nothing. He sped up until he was behind Jake and spun him around, and in a swift motion, punched Jake in the face and pushed him against the rows of lockers, pinning him with his arm.

Now Jake wasn't some weak underclassman, and the shorter male was surprisingly strong for how he looked, but Jake knew that he was stronger, so he could have pushed Eli off if he wanted to, but Eli looked like he had something he needed to say and that he'd be _quite damned _if he could not get it out. Jake took the punch for that moment and let Eli form his first sentence.

"How _dare _you take advantage of Clare like that. How dare you touch her with your dirty hands like that."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Jake said, a small smile lingering on his lips.

"Oh, well you know damn well what I'm talking about."

Jake actually let out a laugh, "And did she _just _tell you now? Honestly, has it even occured to you how little of trust she probably has in you?"

"Clare told me everything just minutes after it happened. She was crying and upsetting, and like hell I'll let anyone who did that to her get away with it."

"Oh, well then did she _also _tell you how much she asked for it and _begged _for it before I-"

Jake was cut off with another punch across his face. Jake was done playing games now. Swiftly, he jammed his knee up and hit Eli straight in the crotch. Taking advantage of Eli being down, he tackled Eli to the floor, punching him as he went. A crowd had formed around them within that time span, and it was a wonder where the teachers were. They were in the English department of the school, and, no doubt, all of the English teachers being young and short females, probably went to the other departments to get the stronger teachers to break up the fight between the two strong upperclassmen boys.

And that's just what they were: boys. Boys who were fighting over something that only boys fight about: girls. And where was that one girl that they were fighting over? Convienently walking down the hallway of the English department, heading to her last and final class for the day when she saw the two of them rolling around and fighting on the ground. Instinct kicked in and she immedietely ran over to the crowd covering the two and pushed her way in, with the intention of stopping the fight once and for all. She grabbed both of their shoulders, yelling their names as she went, and tried unsuccessfully to pull them apart. She heard two sentences overlap each other.

_"Clare, get out of here!"_

_"You little bitch!"_

And she felt a fist collide with her face and felt herself being pulled backwards, no doubt by some of the people in the crowd. She felt stunned for a moment before she heard the loud footsteps coming down the hallway. She recognized them as being Principal Simpson and the football coach. It took the two of them to pry the angry boys off of each other. Clare gasped when she saw their appearances. Eli's nose was bloody and was dripping down to the floor at an alarming rate. Jake _actually had _a rip down the front of his shirt and was holding his side protectively. His hair was messed up and the beginnings of a black eye were starting to form. Jake easily got the shorter end of the stick.

"My office. The two of you. _Now."_ Principal Simpson growled, and himself and the football coach hauled them off towards the main offices.

Clare, all this time, failed to notice a face that was trying to get her attention and was holding her by the shoulders. She looked up and saw the concerned face of Adam Torres in front of her, who was trying to get her attention. He had been repeating her name for a while now.

"Adam?" She questioned softly, afraid of the quiver in her voice that threatened to erupt.

"Shh, it's okay," Adam said, rubbing her shoulder softly, "Is your eye okay? You got nailed pretty badly there."

It wasn't until Adam had mentioned it that Clare felt the pain from it, and she gingerly reached up to touch her cheekbone, which, besides the pain, felt like it was completely intact. Adam hoisted her up to her feet carefully and led her towards the front doors.

"You don't mind if I just take you home right now, do you? You won't be able to pay attention much in Advanced World Literature anyways."

Clare didn't respond, but just let Adam lead her towards the doors.

* * *

><p>That night, Clare spent the night at Eli's house, and they were both up, talking, intertwined with one another on Eli's bed. At first, Clare had been extremely angry with Eli for provoking the fight with Jake, but she eventually let it go, and they began talking about things that had nothing to do with Jake. Their favorite foods, their classes, the books they were reading, really, everything that they already knew about each other, but still enjoyed talking about with each other.<p>

There was one silent moment in their conversation, and throughout it, they just stared at each other in the eyes. Looking down at the wonderful girl that Eli had in his arms, he remembered the conversation he had with his mother. The words left unsaid between himself and Clare. The words she needed to know.

"I love you."

Clare felt something change inside of her, and before she even understood exactly what it was she was doing, she found herself on top of him, kissing him ferociously. And in that moment, they both knew how much they loved each other. No words were nessesary.

Slowly but surely, both of their clothes found their ways to the ground and in the night, they both showed how much they loved each other. No one was forcing anyone to do anything; it was entirely out of their own accord. It was the one that Clare had been friends with since she was six.

And she wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

A silent prayer was made that night between the two of them. Whether they were conscious or not of this prayer remains unknown, but the prayer was made to the stars above. The prayer enscripted:

_"Starlight, Star Bright  
>Of all the stars we would see tonight;<br>We wish we may, the wish came true,  
>You had the wish that we wished tonight."<em>

Their love was destined in the stars from way before the two of them were even born. Their love had a beginning point, and as all loves do, and their love had an ending point. It was a matter of when that ending point was going to take place. Not even the stars could be read in such a way as to predict something like that.

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter Eleven-<br>**  
>(...Incredibly sorry about the three month wait.)<strong>


	12. Age Seventeen

Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Twelve: Age Seventeen

* * *

><p><em>-Friday-<em>

* * *

><p>It was prom night and the entirety of Degrassi High was buzzing with laughter and excitement that the night's festivities would bring. It was senior year, and despite all of the ups and downs and the struggles through life that Clare and Eli had endured, they were going to end their high school careers right with a night that neither of them were ever going to forget.<p>

Jake and his father had swiftly relocated to the States following Jake's graduation (needless to say, he barely graduated). Clare hadn't heard from either of them since the situation the year prior, and quite frankly, she wasn't complaining. She would, however, be moving to the States herself. She practically screamed when she got her acceptance letter to New York University, and then screamed again when the financial aid letter came in saying that the university would pay for over half of her tuition. Her dreams of majoring in creative writing were actually coming true. As it turned out, many of her dreams were coming true that year.

Eli had applied for much smaller schools in New York City and was accepted to a few of them. He wasn't sure what he wanted his major to be, if he were quite frank, but he did know that he wanted Clare. Even though they would be in the same city as each other, they might as well have been miles apart from each other, considering how big and how many people resided in the Big Apple. However, they each knew that the other was going to be a simple subway ride away.

They were in it for the long run. Clare knew that Eli was planning on proposing to her – Adam had let the cat out of the bag weeks ago. Eli was just trying to find the perfect moment to do so. Clare, on her end, had been dropping hints like a dub-step remix drops the bass, and she knew that there was no doubt that he would be proposing extremely soon.

It was funny, in a way. Her mom and Cece had been basically planning hers and Eli's marriage since they were children. Of course they were best friends and then found love in each other, but their parents only ever joked about the marriage; they never thought that it would actually happen.

Oh, how teenagers had a nag for proving grown-ups wrong.

And sure, it was a little soon. They were only seventeen, after all. It was the May of their senior year and they were so close to graduating that they could taste it. But what came after? After you have spent your entire life in the same town, with the same neighbors, with the same friends, and in the same school system, what do you do? Going out of the country for school was going to change both Clare's and Eli's life for good or for bad, or both. Such a drastic change, moving from a small, suburban town with quite the history, to a huge, urban city, not to mention one of the major cities in the entire world, and given a clean slate, could surely make or break them. Their relationship. The two of them were ready for that change. They were ready to take the risks, leave behind everything and everyone to start their lives together.

Clare was sure that they wouldn't get married until after they graduated from their undergraduate schools. That's why these next four years of her life would truly be the test of time. But hadn't they already passed that test? If eleven years together meant nothing, then surely they wouldn't last four more years. Eleven years meant everything to them. What's another four more years?

Clare and Alli had gone prom dress shopping, and boy, did Alli look stunning in her hot pink dress. Then again, she always wore pink, but it was like her trademark. She practically _had _to wear pink. Clare found herself in a purple lilac dress, which truly was out of the ordinary for her, considering that her favorite color was a light blue. She had put on the lilac dress just to appease Alli, since she _insisted _that it would go amazing with her skin tone and eyes.

And when Clare looked at herself for the first time with that dress on, she glowed. She knew then that it was the dress for her, and quickly shot a text to Eli with the change of plans, since prior to she was so adamant on wearing light blue. She could have only hoped that he hadn't bought his tie and the corsages yet.

So she got the lilac dress with shoes to match, along with her friendship bracelet that she had gotten from Eli for her ninth birthday, and had a gut feeling about that night. She knew about the rumors that went around about her and Jake from last year, and she ignored them, and her and Eli went on their happy way through senior year, not letting anything or anyone stop them. This night was all about them, not the rest of Degrassi. Sure, they could make their nights' special at the prom, and they could make it a night to remember, but when it came down to it, the rest of Degrassi didn't matter to the love-struck couple.

They were going to have pictures, and then go to dinner with their prom group. Their group consisted of themselves, Alli and Drew, and Adam and Fiona, and everyone was so damn happy that Adam got up the nerves to ask Fiona to prom, because they were way too cute to be legal. Eli managed to convince everyone to have prom pictures take place in the little clearing that Eli had taken Clare to on their first actual date, all the while managing to keep the pictures destination a secret from Clare. When they had arrived outside the woods where the clearing was at, Clare knew exactly where she was, but she didn't actually think that they were going to get their prom pictures where she had had her first kiss with Eli. To say she was elated would be an understatement.

In the last three years since their first date, a small stone cobble pathway had been made through the woods, and the clearing in the woods had been turned into some neighborhood park. Benches were put in and trashcans and a small picnic area over by a tree was there when they arrived, but Clare still remembered the giddiness that the place had for her. As if on cue, Eli came up to her from behind and held her close, putting a big one on her cheek. She couldn't help but laugh; he always found a way to make her laugh.

The group congregated in the center where a cedar, higher than the rest, spread like a plane, fast by a brook, and provided the perfect background scenery for pictures. As the pictures were being took, Clare couldn't help but notice out of the corner of her eyes that Cece and Bullfrog were smiling in a way that suggested that they knew something that perhaps she or other people didn't know. Clare's stomach did a somersault.

He was going to propose.

_He was going to propose._

_Eli. Was going. To Propose._

She could have died a happy life right there.

However, Eli did not propose right there in the field, even though it would have had extremely strong connotation for the both of them. They sat at dinner with the other two couples and even after all was eaten and they stood up to go to the prom, Eli did not propose there.

It was during the final couple's song of the night. The last song of the night, in fact. Eli was holding Clare close as they rocked back and forth to the harmonious music that Eli whispered in her ear, "You mean everything to me."

"Right back at ya, Elijah!" Clare said, nuzzling his nose with her own.

Eli smirked, "Clare, I wanted to ask you..."

Butterflies erupted from her stomach, up her throat and into her mouth that produced the words, "What is it?"

Eli bit his lip, before meeting her eyes and saying, "What's your favorite color?"

Clare inwardly sighed. He was toying with her, "Blue, you know that!"

Eli laughed, "Oh good, cause you know, I just wanted to make sure I got it right."

Eli reached into his right hand pocket, and, holding her gaze, pulled out a diamond right, surrounded by little tiny sapphires. Clare gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth as Eli separated himself from her and went down on one knee, holding the ring between two fingers, "Clara Diana Edwards, would you do me the most humble honor of marrying me?"

She was laughing. She was crying and laughing and smiling so brightly and hysterically that it took a couple of seconds for her to exclaim "yes", so loudly, so gladly, that everyone in the gymnasium of Degrassi High looked over and saw Eli on his knee and Clare practically jumping up and down and knew exactly what had just happened. Instantly, the crowd of students began clapping and cheering for the newly engaged couple. A few of the teachers that weren't familiar with their relationship shook their heads and silently judged the young couple, but they didn't care. They had been best friends since they were six years old, and they knew that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.

The prom DJ, being quite moved by this prom spectacle, leaned into the microphone and announced one more song for all the couples out there, and "especially this one, right here. You don't find love like that everyday, now do you?"

Eli slid the ring on her ring finger and stood up, marveling in his new fiancée. Clare closed the gap between them and kissed him, with his face in her hands. He had his arms wrapped around her, and from all around them, more cheering induced.

It really was their prom. It was the best way that they could have ended their high school careers, and it truly was a night that neither of them would ever forget.

* * *

><p><em>-Sunday-<em>

* * *

><p>Clare, as valedictorian, was given the opportunity to give the "turning of the tassels" speech at the Degrassi High graduation. She, just like how Julie Andrews was the only Tony Award nominee to turn down her nomination, was the first valedictorian of Degrassi High to turn down giving the speech. She stood on stage with the top ten while Alli, the salutatorian, gave the speech. Personally, Clare didn't think herself to be representative of her entire graduating class, and she believed that Alli was a much better candidate to deliver that speech, and to reach out to more students than Clare would be able to.<p>

Eli had come out number nine in his class, and thus stood on the stage with her on the clear other side. The rest of her class stood in the first few rows of chairs on the lawn outside of Degrassi High and perpendicular to De Grassi Street, having already walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. It was a tranquil day outside, the sun shining, birds chirping. Clare could scan the audience and find her mom sitting next to Cece and Bullfrog.

And then a man caught her eyes. A man standing in the way back by a tree. She knew that he looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. Naturally, Alli ended her speech with a, "Let's all change the positions of our tassels to signify that each one of us has completed their secondary education! Congratulations to the graduates of Degrassi High!"

Graduation hats were thrown in the air by some, more students cheered. The parents were clapping and crying, and Clare suddenly found herself in the arms of Eli, being swept off her feet and kissed. They had done it. They finally had graduated high school. But what came next? College. The States. They had an entirely unpredictable future ahead of them. Well, that's how they both tended to be.

Eli broke apart from her and laughed, "Time for the rest of our lives!"

They walked over to where Clare's mom and Eli's parents were standing, Cece nearly squealing with glee and a few tears down Clare's mom's face. Clare immediately went to hug her mom, grinning as she saw her bracelet from Eli on her right wrist and her engagement ring on her left hand. Over her mom's shoulder, she saw the man again, standing over by the tree, staring right at her. He began to walk over.

He looked incredibly familiar, Clare knew that it was just on the tip of her tongue. It wasn't until she ended her hug with her mother that the man was right behind them, cleared his throat and said, "Clara."

Startled, Clare's mom turned around and stared, blank face, "Randall, what are you doing here?"

_Randal._

_Randal._

_Randal._

_Her father._

She gripped Eli's arm and he went around to hold her steady, as she was staring at him like a deer in headlights. Her father tried to come in for a hug but Clare shied back, her fears of this man coming back from the depths of her mind. How long had it been since she had last seen this man? Nine years? She was eight when he left and never came back. She was nine when he sent her the only birthday card she would receive from the man.

"Clara… it's good to see you," Her father said, keeping his distance.

Clare reiterated the question, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you graduate… you never did call me… sweetheart," He tried coming in to hug her.

"Don't touch me!" Clare all but screamed, Eli moving in as though to intimidate him.

"Clara-"

"It's Clare now, thank you," Clare said shortly, "But you wouldn't have known that, would you, considering that you left and didn't return."

"I know sweetheart, and I'm so sorry-"

"Why did you just _leave _us like that?" Clare finally screamed, tears rolling down her face. Any realization she had of her being in a public place was gone. People were staring. She didn't care.

"Why would you do that?" Clare whispered, energy drained from her, "You know nothing about me. You have been gone for the last nine years. You've missed nine birthdays. You've missed me growing up. I'm engaged now – huh – would you have ever known about that? Would you have ever cared? I have barely seen Darcy in four years, aside from a few phone calls and a letter or two. I never called you because I didn't want to have you in my life. Had you have not left mom wouldn't have remarried. I wouldn't have gotten a stepbrother. I wouldn't have been…" She trailed off, sobbing, words hanging in the air like stars.

When it came down to it, everything truly could have been traced back to the divorce. Her name change, her mother's remarriage, her situation with Jake… all of it.

She was in Eli's arms, sobbing. She heard, "I'm sorry Clara… Clare," and then he was gone. As quickly as he had came. If she pretended, she could imagine that he was never here. But he was. He had the audacity to come to her graduation after not seeing her in nine years. Nine years where she could say that the only good thing that came out of it was getting Eli.

It was around four pm. They had been planning on going to an early dinner, but Clare's mom suggested they put it off for a late dinner, seeing as how Clare was doing. They had discarded their caps and gowns in the car. Eli pulled her to the side once they reached her house, "Let's get some hot chocolate."

She nodded. Hot chocolate sounded splendid. They went straight from the outside of her house to Eli's hearse, both piling in. They headed towards The Dot, driving in silence for the first part of the ride.

"That was a really brave thing you did back there, you know," Eli said as he drove.

Clare snorted, "I don't see how that could be defined as brave."

"Well, you stood your ground and knew what you wanted. Or rather, what you didn't want. You knew that you didn't want him. That you didn't want him in your life-"

"Eli, for once, that's where you're completely wrong," Clare said, pushing her hair back, "I wish that he could have been there for me in these past few years. I wish so hard that he was there and that Jake and his father weren't. Clearly, there's no way to change the way things have happened, but I wanted… I wanted him to feel the pain that I have felt in the last few years. I want him in my life… But it's too late for that now, now is it?"

Eli pulled into a parking spot outside of The Dot. He turned the ignition and turned towards her, really looking at her, "You are one of the most extraordinary people that I know. I love you Clare."

Clare couldn't help but laugh, "I love you too… isn't it funny how you have been in my life for more years than my own father? I've known you for almost twelve years. I mean, how messed up is that?"

"Well," Eli went suave, "I'm a pretty messed up guy."

"Shut up," He did with a kiss.

They both left their car to get their hot chocolate, only to find that the door was locked. The Dot was closed due to graduation. How convenient.

* * *

><p>They went to the grocery store to get some powdered hot chocolate. In line to check out, Clare couldn't help but giggle.<p>

"Elijah, you came on my radar for the first time here almost twelve years ago." Clare giggled.

Eli sighed, "Ah yes, I remember. You were shy and I was shy and our mothers knew each other and basically arranged our wedding that day!"

"It's funny," Clare said, grabbing the bag with the hot chocolate and heading towards the door, "how things were going to turn out."

"Don't get corny on me, Edwards!" Eli laughed.

"Your fault – you thought it would be a good idea to marry me!" Clare laughed, running towards the car, Eli running fast behind her, grabbing her around the waist and twirling her in the air.

The sun was just beginning to set.

* * *

><p>Clare's mother decided on home cooking for them that night, and invited over Eli's parents to eat with them. Dinner would be late, around nine o'clock. Both Eli and Clare were out on a blanket in the backyard, looking up at the stars beginning to appear. The sky was a beautiful dark blue and grey, the sun's rays nearly gone, and the stars were clearly visible in the cloudless sky. Eli was holding her around the waist. Clare was playing with his belly button.<p>

"It's these kind of nights that make me realize just how much of a lucky guy I am, Clare Edwards."

"It's times like these when I realize just how weird outie belly buttons are," Clare said in response.

"Clare, that's just weird."

"You're just weird."

"You're the one that proposed."

"A genius idea on my part if I do say so myself."

"Cocky."

"Beautiful."

"I know."

He kissed her.

It would be nights like these that would be the most memorable of their relationship. Nights like their first date, chasing each other that recess, their first sleepover – memories that would be with them forever.

Clare broke the kiss, looked up at the sky, and smiled:

_Starlight, Star Bright,  
>The brightest star in front of me tonight,<br>I wish I may, I wish I might,  
>I have all the wishes I've wished tonight.<em>

The brightest star would be Eli. He had always been there for her, day and night. He always shined bright and showed her the way. He was the path that she wanted to take. She had silently prayed that Eli would be her friend forever, back when she had first met him, and that nothing would ever come between them. Because forever is a bound agreement that _truly _means forever.

* * *

><p>-End of Chapter Twelve-<p>

_Fin_


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